Our trip to St. Lucia!

The hubby's out of the house for the night... Poker night (his first in ages).  So I scooped up his laptop.  iPhones are great... but a real sized laptop is waaay better.
I got to thinking I could do a post tonight.  But the only recent-ish pics on Dan's laptop are some from our trip to St. Lucia.
So, a post on St. Lucia it is. 
Dan and I headed out on vacation-- ALONE (kidless!) in November.

I only uploaded our "little camera"'s pictures onto Dan's computer. So I can't show you my better pictures (big camera.. DSLR) hopefully you can wait for those.

We had a smooth flight- probably the best ever. No turbulence. No seat belt signs. 

I love having the window seat (thanks hunnie), and seeing all the islands below.

We landed on the South side of the island. Our resort was in the North.

We drove all up the island, on the East coast, then through the rain forest.  That was pretty interesting.

There was a hurricane (Tomas) the year before, and some of the roads were a little (okay, a whole lane) washed out from that.  And they were pretty twisty.

We were thankful to finally be at our resort.

We spent the next couple days relaxing. Basking in the sunshine.  Sitting in the pool.  Walking on the beach.  We needed it.  We napped. We went to bed early.

Actually most nights, we were in bed by ten.  Some nights, we went to bed right after dinner (8pm).

It was GREAT! And totally needed.

Oh, and we had THE BEST bamboo massage. Like... the best in our lives.

It was sooo nice for it to just be the two of us.

The last time Dan & I spent time alone (more than a date for a couple hours) was when Isabella was three months old, and my mom took her for a night- for our first anniversary.  That was over three years ago.

Can I just say how amazing it is to just be ?

We didn't have to make sure someone was watching kids, or packing something, or cleaning something up, preparing a meal or washing dishes. 

I felt so good to not nag.

And just be together.

Like when we were dating.

We really enjoyed being together, whether it was hanging out at the pool, the bar (yay virgin drinks), or beach- it was nice.

After a couple days we mustered up the energy to play a bit.

We went jet skiing.

I've never been before- but its just like snowmobiling.... just on water in the sun.

I could get used to that.

We also went kayaking at our beach.  That was cool.

Turns out, I'm more adventurous than Danno.

We did some swimming.

They had really cool other water sports at the beach, but they gave me a big

NO

to cool activities like sailing, wind surfing,..... 

I guess they didn't buy it that I just had a beer belly and wasn't preggers.

Better safe than sorry.

Next time - I'm doing all the cool stuff (that I couldn't do this time)

like: horseback riding, zip lining, para sailing,

four wheeling, wind surfing, ....

We are big snorkeling fans.  When I researched the resort, it said they had free snorkel equipment.

Nope. Not when we got there. So we waited and went at the end of the week (during an excursion)- more on that later.

Our resort was great.  I found us constantly comparing it to others we've been to. I think this one was a four, or four and a half star.  Still in our minds, our honeymoon (5star) was the best... Guess that's why it was our honeymoon.

The pools were beautiful.  The beach was nice.  The water got deep very quickly, so we couldn't do a lot of playing. 

As I mentioned, there were lots of water sports though.



The sunsets were gorgeous (we were in a cove... hence mtn view)
It was strange though that they happened so early at night. We are so used to sunsets being after dinner when the weather is summer like- not before dinner- as it was on vacation.





• 

Sooo scandalous!  I've always wanted to do this.  Actually, I didn't have the guts. Dan put our love in cement for us. :)



20 WEEKS!
(a half way through my pregnancy pic)

 

Waiting at the spa for our sunset couples massage



About to have our beautiful sunset - and rain outdoor massage.

Early one morning we boarded a boat, in hopes of spotting some whales and dolphins.

Well, hello sailor!



Just chillin.

Still keeping an eye out for some whales and dolphins.

Dan always jokes around, so I didn't take him seriously when he spotted the first whales.

Sure enough he was right. 

We saw a pod of pilot whales. 

Our guide told us to look for what looked like a shark fin swimming through the ocean, or water being blown out their spout. 

They really looked like they had shark fins!

I have never seen whales in real life- in their own habitat.

They were so beautiful.  I could tell that all of the passengers (myself included) were in total awe.

 Here is a whale set against the Pitons - mountains

in the South end of the Island.

Its really hard to take a level picture when you're on a boat!

And then there were DOLPHINS!

My mood went from awe and calm to being totally giddy.

Like a kid.

I looooved them.

I sat at the very front of the boat with my feet dangling over each side of the boat,

and the dolphins literally swam just a couple feet below my toes!

Back in March, I swam with dolphins in Cuba (okay, and on our honeymoon) and that was pretty incredible. But this was so different.  There's something so special about getting to interact (or see) wildlife in their own habitat.

See this one jumping?

It was tough to take pics with my crappy little camera, I'm so used to my DSLR taking pictures the second I click... so there were a lot of tail pictures, or ones of the water (since I missed the whale/dolphin), and big splashes!

We saw two types of dolphins that day, I'm told.

Common dolphins.

& Spinner dolphins.

The captain drove the boat quickly, and in big loops to create huge waves.

The dolphins would jump through the surf all together!

(those pics were hard to see, so I didn't post 'em)

Also, the dolphins would swim alongside the boat, and in front of it.

Like, almost touching it.

Like, I thought we might run them over.

They have the cutest personalities. They love to perform, and be near humans.

 I LOVED this day.

Actually, the other night, I couldn't sleep, and without consciously doing so, my mind went back to that day a month and a half ago.  I guess that day made more of an impression on me than I thought.

I loved getting dolled up for dinner (ie. no track pants or bathing suits)

The food at our resort was pretty good. Especially at the a la cartes, which we were lucky enough to eat at all but two nights.

They even had vegan menus (although I'd ordered from those menus and they still served me dairy. hmm?)

We are looking pretty tanned in that pic!

It was really hot there.

The temperature was consistently above 30 degrees.

Ahhhh! Heaven.

Well, heaven for me.

Dan doesn't love the heat.  What a good sport, eh?

Lots of days he went to the hotel room for a siesta.

I stayed outside... soaking up my vitamin D.

I had a facial one day :)

And during the week I read a whole book...

"The Book of Negroes"

It was a really good book.  I'll lend it to you if you want.

On our last full day in St. Lucia, we hopped on a boat (from our beach) with Captain Edmund.   It rained on and off all day long.  Actually I was told, that it had rained at least a little every single day in that year on the island! 

Along with about eight others, we boated down the West coast of the Island for the day.  We made stops at touristy spots- like where "Pirates of the Caribbean" was filmed, where the boat from the movie is docked,...

We shopped at the local market in Castries.

yay!

I love stuff like that (shopping, checking out the local scene)

We boated along the coast, into various Marinas, caves, saw Mick Jagger's and George Foreman's homes, famous resorts (even where a "Bachelor" was taped), ...

Then we went to the Volcano

It's not the sputtering lava type. It's sulphur. And smelly.

Apparently, when it erupts, the chemicals would petrify you immediately!

We did a tour

Hot springs

Close by was the mud bath (sulphur)

I heard that it was supposed to be so hot that a pregnant lady could definitely not go in.

But, thankfully for all the recent rain (all day) - it dropped the temperature to that of a warm bath, so I went in.  Thank goodness! It was awesome.  The mud on the bottom was black, and we scooped it up and rubbed it all over ourselves and each other.

Then we headed over to the stream- where it was shallower, and it was easier to scoop up the mud. 

The whole group of were covered.

The mud was so mineral rich and exfoliating.

It felt great. And fun!

Our skin has never felt softer!

The whole ride back I kept touching my skin and Dan's....sooo soft.

Also, the mud is said to help cure different ailments.  Most of which I can't remember.

It made our mosquito bites stop itching though!! :)

Dan's shorts (after many washes) still aren't white.

Then we hopped back in the boat, and went to a beautiful beach where we could finally snorkel!

Sorry, no goofy snorkel gear pictures.

The marine life was gorgeous.

We brought bread and bananas to feed to the fish.

Unfortunately, our gear kept leaking, and I was getting super frustrated.

So we packed it in sooner than we would have liked to.

I think- Lesson learned. Next time- do what my mom does. Buy your own snorkel gear here, and bring it.

I guess I'd have to pack a lot lighter to do that, but it would be worth it.

Oh well, someone remind me... It will probably be years before I can go again.

And, back to the resort.

A long boat ride!

We had an awesome day- our last in St. Lucia

I was totally impressed that we could just get on a boat with a local (vs. a pricey excursion) for a really good price.  He showed us a great day.

Instead of leaving the resort the next am -pretty early,

and take the vans back with all the others on our flight,

we opted to take a helicopter ride to the airport.

This bought us a few extra hours at the resort and gave us a cool new view of the island.

(A little aside: the day we left was the day before the elections, and there was a lot of traffic expected)

Do I look excited?

The whole ride took 12 minutes.

We flew over most of the island, and saw marinas, the ocean, the rain forest...

It was interesting to see from above, and to see the damage a year after the hurricane (landslides)

yay!!

Bye-bye St. Lucia!

We were sad to go, but had enough relaxing, and were really excited to see the kiddies again.

We have never been away from them so long.

And I think Nanny probably needed a rest!

THANK YOU MOM!!!!

 That was the absolute, hands down, greatest, most selfless gift anyone could have ever given us!!

My mom got to really bond with my babes.

Ben asked for her for days after.

(It's awful... we left her with Ben who had started potty training a couple days prior, and both kids had colds.  My mom said she's never seen so much poo, pee, and snot, of every colour!)

We came home to a clean house, happy kids, evidence of lots of crafts and fun play, a toilet trained little guy and a little girl with a new appreciation for her mommy.  Isabella tells me (since we got back) multiple times a day that she loves me. 

That was perfect.

I will treasure those memories forever.