So this is it, the final recap of our wedding! I still can’t believe it’s really over, but I’m so glad I wrote these, so I will always be able to look back and remember how amazing it was! (I’m breaking it into three posts, because I have too many pictures!)
Justin planned our entire trip, without even telling me where we were going! It was supposed to be a surprise that he didn’t spill until we got to the airport, but I found out early by accident! He was sending me random photos of the location, and I was setting them as my background on my work computer. One day my boss came over to my desk, and said “Oh, that’s St. Lucia, I’ve been there!” I couldn’t believe she recognized it by just one photo of a beach!
To be more specific, we spent 8 wonderful days on the beautiful Caribbean Island of St. Lucia, at the Sandals Halcyon Beach Resort. It was the most amazing, relaxing, and romantic vacation we have ever been on!
Around the resort
Our first look at the ocean, upon arriving at the resort!
Our room was on the backside of the resort, hidden away near the “quiet pool”. It was perfect!
Our room!
I should have taken this picture while the bed was made, but I kept forgetting, and this was right before we locked it for the last time!
The “quiet pool” right across from our room. We spent most of our afternoons lounging here in the sun, drinking BBC’s. (This amazing blended goodness, consisting of Bailey’s, a banana, and Coconut Cream liqour.)
The “Activity Pool”. We didn’t spend as much time here, because there was loud music, and they were constantly bugging you to play games. We just wanted to relax!
All week Justin kept saying he’d teach me how to play this gigantic chess game, but we never got around to it. It reminded me of Wizard’s chess :)
You can’t go to the Caribbean without spending a moment in a cabana, right?
Excursion #1 – Couples Massage
Our first day on the island was spent mostly laying around the pool and taking a break from reality. After everything we’ve been through in the last year, from Justin’s mom, to planning the wedding, we knew a massage was at the top of our list of things to do. We scheduled it for our very first day, to prep us for our stress free week in paradise. We ended up taking a shuttle to one of the other two Sandals resorts on the island, Sandals Grande. As soon as we stepped off the shuttle, we realized that this is the resort to stay at if you’re there with friends and ready to party. It was much rowdier than Halcyon, with tons of people our age hanging by the pool and having a blast. It was fun to spend the afternoon there, but we were both glad to be staying at the more relaxing resort.
The shuttle got us to this resort early, so we spent some time in a cabana until our massage appointment.
I didn’t get any pictures of the spa, but all I can say is it was the most relaxed I’ve ever been in my life! Even Justin, who was super nervous for his first massage, absolutely loved it and wants to get another one soon! We definitely left happy!
Excursion #2- Shopping in Castries
On our second day, we spent more time laying around, and then headed to the capital, Castries, for some shopping. The resort provided a shuttle service and we hit up a two major shopping zones. The first was a duty free mall, which had a bunch of little shops, but nothing in our price range. The only things we bought here were a local artist’s painting, and a bottle of Admiral Rodney, which is a rum that is distilled there. (This is what we named our new puppy after!)
After the duty free, we went further into the capital, to this place called the Craft Market. It was basically a giant warehouse, full of locals selling their goods, and was definitely more of what we were hoping to shop for! We ended up getting ourselves a hand-carved vase, and we bought souvenirs for our nieces. We got this adorable little hand-sewn dress, and a carved cross for Kaia, who is also our Goddaughter, and these cool beaded necklaces for Brylee and Maddy. I didn’t get many photos because the locals are kind of crazy, and I was nervous to pull out my camera, but I did manage to get a couple shots of the street view.
*Edit: After reading this, Justin reminded me that I left out the best worst part of our shopping trip! We were trying to cross this busy street, and this random guy offered to help guide us through the traffic. Next thing we know, he’s telling us we should ignore the shops we were heading for, and instead go with him to this other market “just around the corner, down that alley”. Um yea, there was no freaking way we were gonna go with him! After Justin went back and forth with him for about 5 minutes, the guy finally gave into the fact that we weren’t going. So instead he decided to ask us if we would like to donate some money to his Cricket team. Uh, again, not a chance.
Stay tuned for Part 2, which will include a video, if I can figure out how to embed it!
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So gorgeous! Makes me even more excited for ours after seeing all of this :)