Our Honeymoon to St. Lucia, West Indies

St. Lucia

The beach near our resort and the St. Lucian man

Chad and I weren't sure where to take our honeymoon or if we'd even have one, but at the beginning of the summer, we decided to go ahead and venture to the island of St. Lucia.  We are definitely very happy with our decision.  We had an amazing time!!  The people were welcoming and the island is gorgeous!!  We're hoping we can return again some day because it was very hard to leave.



Below is the mini-journal I kept during our honeymoon to chronicle all the events:

Sunday, Oct. 16:  We arrived in St. Lucia around 4pm local time.  We arrived at our room at Sandal's La Toc to find a bottle of champagne waiting for us.  We walked the property and ate dinner at Neptune's, a Mediterranean restaurant.

View from our hotel room

Our room when we arrived

Monday, Oct. 17:  We had breakfast in bed, hung out at the pool all day drinking Dirty Bananas, No Pressures, and Pink Ladies.  We walked the beach and went to the Beach Party for dinner where we drank from coconuts and watched dancers with fire.

Ladies dancing with fire torches

The dancer blowing fire

Tuesday, Oct. 18: We had an early morning of shopping in the market where we learned to haggle and the meaning of "no pressure, no problem".  We also went to the Rum Shop and did some stocking up.  We spent the afternoon at the pool and ate dinner at the Pavilion, which was amazing!!

Downtown Castries where we went shopping in the markets on both sides of the street

St. Lucian merchant carving "The Darlings 2011" into a wooden vase we bought from him

Wednesday, Oct. 19: We went ziplining through the rain forest.  There were 12 lines and 1 small line.  Chad and I were the first couple brave enough to go.  There was a lot of hiking and climbing involved to get to the lines, but the views were amazing.  During the tour, our guide told us about the St. Lucian culture and let us try fresh coconut, taste a cocoa bean seed, drink home made rum and introduced us to banana ketchup, which we later bought.  Afterwards, we hung out at the pool.  We ate dinner at Armando's Italian Restaurant, which wasn't so great, so we ate a snack at the Cricketer's Pub and watched the Cardinals win the first game in the World Series.

The rainforest

Sarah ziplining

In our cute ziplining gear

Thursday, Oct. 20: We spent the entire morning at the ocean.  I laid out and Chad played in the ocean and collected shells and rocks.  We went up to the pool for the afternoon.  Before dinner, we had drinks at the Piano Bar and then had dinner at Le Piton, the Caribbean Restaurant, which was yummy!  We went to the Cricketer's Pub again and watched a bit of the World Series before bed.

Chad looking for shells

Chad having a little too much fun on the beach

Friday, Oct. 21: We went on the "Son of Man" Tour of the island.  We went to the mud bath, which supposedly takes 10 years off your life and then to the waterfall.  We had a traditional lunch at the home of a St. Lucian woman.  Then we went shopping and snorkeling. (Tip: bring popcorn or bread because then all the fish swarm to you!!) Then we took the speed boat around the island seeing the homes of Mick Jagger, Sophia Lauren, George Foreman, Howard Stern and the rumored future home of Oprah.  On the boat, we drank spiced rum punch and Piton Beer.  It was an absolute blast seeing the island in such a personal manner and getting to know some of the other guests.  After we got back, we spent a little time at the pool before going to the street party.

Covered in mud

The waterfall

Trying to smile while getting pounded with water

Recognize this from Pirates of the Caribbean?

Boy flipping off the ledge

Saturday, Oct. 22: We sadly got to only spend a little bit of time in St. Lucia before having to leave and head back to the states.  But we were ready to get back to reality as well.  See you on our 10th anniversary, St. Lucia?!