St. Lucia - The Mega Post

WARNING: This is the longest post with the most pictures that I have ever posted, and that is saying a lot from this long-winded girl. I use this blog for so many reasons - family scrapbook, baby milestones, journal, etc. Now I am adding travel log to the many uses of our blog. :) So, feel free to browse freely or skip this post all together. I promise that there will be much more concise posts in the future.
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Wade & I will be celebrating our 10th anniversary in June! I cannot believe that we have been married for that long! We both feel like this is a big milestone for us as a couple. It's something worthy of celebrating, for sure! We started talking months ago about what we wanted to do to celebrate. We LOVE traveling together, so we decided to take a second honeymoon. We have been looking forward to this trip for months.

We decided on the location together (St. Lucia), and then Wade planned the rest of our vacation from there. That is my preferred way to travel. :) We've taken several trips together in our 10 years, and he hasn't let me down yet. He definitely didn't disappoint this time, either. He found a really neat package that was through 2 different resorts - both with very different feels. The first was super luxurious, and the second was more adventurous. We got the best of both worlds!

For a whole week, someone planned and prepared all of our meals, someone cleaned up after us, and we got to play non-stop. So... pretty much we spent a week living the life of our kids. ;)

The week started off with a big surprise. When we got to the airport in St. Lucia, we passed a man that said, "Helicopter ride?" I said, "No, thank you." and kept walking. I turned around to realize that Wade had stopped and was talking to the man. Little did I know that Wade had arranged for us to take a helicopter ride from the airport to our resort.

See, I told you he was good at this stuff! ;)

Our helicopter ride gave us a "bird's eye view" of the island and all of it's beauty. It was AWESOME!

Don't I look official??? Ha!

When we landed at the helipad, a taxi took us on a short ride to our resort, Cap Maison. It was a gorgeous resort and everything was super fancy. We were greeted with champagne and escorted to our villa.

This was our villa. It was like something from a magazine!
We had the entire bottom level and our own private pool.

This was, by far, the nicest place that we have ever stayed. Wade outdid himself, for sure! I was shocked by how gorgeous it was.

Our private pool - we logged many, many hours laying by this pool.
From now on, when life gets overwhelming and I close my eyes to go to my "happy place",
this is where I will be. Ha ha!

The resort had a private beach that was awesome, too. We both love to snorkel, so we were in heaven. You just got your gear from the stand, and jumped right in. We snorkeled every day that we were there.

The cove was called Smuggler's Point, and it provided the best snorkeling that we had ever seen. We even saw an octopus! Very cool.

Wade laid in this hammock and read for 2 hours one day. He was loving life!

Sandy toes on the beach - does it get any better than that???

This was our view from the resort's restaurant where we ate every meal. It was so gorgeous!

On Tuesday, we went on a sunset cruise. It was so beautiful!

I was really worried about leaving the boys for a whole week. I was worried that I would miss them so badly that I wouldn't enjoy myself. Wade had already warned me that it was VERY expensive to use our cell phones from there - international rates are pretty pricey. So, I was worried that my communication with them would be limited.

Thankfully, both resorts had wireless internet connections. So, we were able to Skype with the kids every day. It made the week so much easier knowing that I could see their happy faces and hear their sweet voices every day. Drew was particularly cute. He would sit at the computer the entire time that we were Skyping. He would point over and over again and say, "Daddeeeeee! Mommeeeee!" I was glad to hear that he didn't forget who we were. ;)

Wade showed Clayton the rainforest via Skype.

Halfway through the week, we went to the second resort from our package, Ladera. It was totally different than Cap Maison, but very neat for different reasons. Cap Maison was right on the beach, and Ladera was up in the mountains of the rainforest.

All of the rooms at Ladera have an open fourth wall, meaning that one side of your room is completely open to the breathtaking views. I will admit, I had some concerns about that. I was worried about bugs, privacy, security, etc. The resort is built into tall cliffs and there is plenty of space between each suite, so that took care of my safety and privacy concerns. As for the bugs.... there were lots of them. There were also lizards, birds and various other forms of wildlife. But, the amazing view more than made up for the "nature" that made its way into our room. Ha!

I slept under a mosquito net for the first time.
I guess that there really is a first time for everything... :)

The resort provided a welcome basket in the room. It had all of the stuff that you would expect - bug spray, ear plugs, an electrical converter box, an eye mask, etc. It also had a water gun in it. I was confused until I read that you could use it to shoot the birds if they came in your room. Ha! ;)

This is the view that we woke up to every morning. Totally worth it!
You could see Saint Lucia's famous World Heritage Piton Mountains from our room. They are peaks formed from volcanic magma.

We took an excursion to Anse Chastanet, a black sand beach, on Thursday.
The sand is a mix of regular sand and volcanic ash. It was gorgeous!

We snorkeled at this beach also. It is said to have some of the best snorkeling/scuba diving in the entire Caribbean. We were out there for about half an hour, and we saw the most brilliantly bright colored fish. It was beautiful! I was curious about some fish that I had never seen before, though. They were long and swam pretty close to the top of the water. I motioned to Wade and he nodded that he saw them too. So, when we came back in, I asked Wade, "What were those long fish? They wouldn't have hurt us, would they?" He then proceeded to inform me that they were BARRACUDAS!!! What?!?!

I asked him why he didn't tell me while we were out there and he looked at me like I was a total moron. He said, "I just assumed that you knew." Um... no. No, I didn't.

Needless to say, I was done snorkeling for the day.

The Beautiful (but Barracuda Infested) Waters :)

On Friday, we did another excursion called the Soufriere Experience. We went to the nearby village and saw a volcano, 2 waterfalls, and a botanical garden.

The Sulphur Springs "Drive-In Volcano" last erupted in 1776, but continue to vent sulfur and heat little pools of water above the boiling point. It was truly a sight to see!

The Botanical Gardens were amazing also. There were tons of flowers that were exotic - plants you don't see everyday.

L to R: A Waxy Rose, A Crab Claw plant, and A Bleeding Heart plant

Diamond Falls

Toraille Waterfall
We got to swim in this waterfall. It was really, really cold and the water came down with so much pressure that you could barely stand up. It was refreshing after our long tour.

A View of the Town of Soufriere

The view from the resort's infinity pool - You could see the Pitons from there. The one on the left is the Gros Piton and the one on the right is the Petit Piton.

Another View of the Pitons

Our Last Night :(

We had an amazing time being just the two of us. We had long, long talks about our future. We talked about our kids, our families, our friends, our church, where we see ourselves at future anniversaries, etc. I enjoyed every second of my time with my darling husband. It was a trip that I will never, ever forget. If it weren't for the 2 big chunks of my heart that I left back in Texas, I don't know if I would have ever been ready to come home. :)

That being said, I was really ready to see Clayton & Drew by the end of the week. I'm pretty sure that I said, "I miss our babies!" about a hundred times on Saturday. ;) It was a loooong travel day with many delays and technical difficulties. My amazing in-laws drove an extra 2 hours to bring the boys all the way to Dallas and met us at 10:00pm because they knew how badly I was missing them. Isn't that sweet?!?! Thank you, Marsha & Terry for taking such good care of our boys. I appreciate you more than you will ever know!

Thanks, also, to Wade for planning such a wonderful second honeymoon. Everything was perfect - beyond my wildest dreams! I love doing life with you!