No Pressure, No Problem, Mon

Welcome to Paradise!!! For our honeymoon, we went to St Lucia. We both wanted a beach and a relaxing environment, so off to St Lucia we went! Neither of us had been to the island before, so it was special to go there for the first time together. Let me tell you, RELAXATION we definitely got. We left Mobile early Wednesday morning after the wedding and were on the island by 3pm. The ride from the airport to the resort is about an hour and a half, but our driver was wonderful and the entire ride was basically a fully guided tour. He welcomed us with an ice chest of water and Piton (the local beer). What a welcome! We then went to the resort where we would find our way around and make our selves at home. We opted to do an all inclusive resort for the honeymoon, as everything would be there for us and we wouldn't have to worry about where to go or what to eat, etc etc, and it was all right there at our dispense.
As luck would have it, Evan was sick the first night of the honeymoon (welcome to your honeymoon, the first dinner was a nightmare, the food was awful and we left about 10 minutes after our meals arrived because Evan felt awful!) I of course got worried and thought what the heck are we going to do if he is sick and needs to see a doctor. Here we are on this island in the middle of nowhere! Luckily his bug only lasted that day and the next day he was feeling fine again! We spent day in and day out laying by the pool, on the beach, soaking it all in. We relaxed until relaxing got boring, we read books until we finished books, and we had enough bananas and banana beverages to own a banana farm! Banana trees are EVERYWHERE on the island and we learned a great deal about bananas. Unfortunately the taxi driver felt it was necessary to tell us that only the "reject" bananas that don't meet the international market criteria are used on the island -GREAT, just what I needed to know, that they are going to be feeding me all the "reject" bananas all week! We had a great time and got enough relaxing done to last a while! I have lots of pictures to share, so I will leave you with a TON of pictures and captions telling their stories above them, as it is easier to live vicariously through the pictures! And just to set the records straight, it is true, we left our honeymoon together, however, landed in different cities the first night after the honeymoon! Evan and I had a layover in Atlanta, and as Redisch traveling luck would have it, they needed a volunteer. How silly to think we were in our hometown, our house was down the street calling our name, yet we were hopping on a plane to Mobile to only wake up and drive back the next morning. I told Evan to go ask the agent at the gate if he could give up his seat and stay in Atlanta. I figured if Delta would pay us enough it would be worth me driving back from Mobile with a car full of gifts alone. And the rest is history, Delta paid us more than I ever thought they would at the first mention of staying in Atlanta, and Evan headed for the house, and I headed for Mobile!

View from the pool looking out at ocean

The guy in the boat anchored right outside the rope which ropes off the "property" where we all could float or swim "safely" and make hats out of leaves and sell them to guests at the resort
A few days at the pool they had "games", much like on a cruise ship. This is when evan thought it would be a good idea to participate in "wipeout" St Lucia style. This is Evan getting pummeled by this guy that clearly wiped out!

Our Room

We moved rooms after the first night because our room never cooled down enough for us to even be comfortable. Before moving rooms they thought a fan would help. Clearly Amy didn't thnk that would be sufficient! :)

The view from "Bayside" which was one of the many restaurants we could choose from on a daily basis. Most of the restaurants were outdoors. Although they were warm, they never failed us with an amazing view!!!

Our butlers often decorated our room while we were out to dinner!

This was how the butler decorated our dinner at the italian restaurant

Here is evan ready to "run" through the pool during the over under game, hat backwards and all! :)

This night we got the table right on the edge of the pool. As you can see, life was pretty rought in St Lucia! :)

Just on the other side of the restaurant out at the end of the pier is the end of the resort property. They do have security guards guarding this gate, but you can see just on the other side is where the locals "hang out" and this night we were told they were having a BBQ. The music was amazing! :)

This is Gordon's, the elite restaurant that was otu at the end of a pier, virtually in the middle of the water. We sat under the covering, and boy were we glad we did, and even more glad for the super thatching job on the "hut" because it started POURING out of nowhere. Thankfully it only lasted 10 minutes max.

One night they had a "beach party" dinner and we all ate out on the beach under tents, and were sat at tables with other couples. The entertainment involved fire eating. They even let guests put the fire out with their mouth. GROSSSS.

Just in case you need anything! We went into town to look around and do a little shopping one day. While we frequent ACE often these days in Atlanta, we refrained in St Lucia! :)

If you know me well, you know i LOVE some CocaCola LIGHT. It is different than Diet Coke, and i was SOOOOO happy to have it in St Lucia whenever i wanted it!! :) The only other place I ever really get it is Cabo. Some people love it, some people hate it. I personally would replace Diet Coke in my life with it if i could! I guess I can if I move to St Lucia!

One night we went to the Tepanyaki Japanese restaurant at a sister resort. The guy was hilarious! He told us he wasn't japanese like you usally have at a restaurant like this, but not to worry, he was "black-anese"

This is the kitchen to Gordon's (the restaurant otu on the pier)

This picture is for all of those that A) ARE STILL READING THIS BLOG ENTRY, BECAUSE IT IS SOOOOO LONG, AND B) for those that have been lucky enough to witness Evan also ride a wave runner on sand. He just couldnt resist "sailing the rough sands" as well!

No for real, though, here he is on sailing lessons

One night they had a "chocolate buffet" at midnight - all i can say is Ah-Ma-Zing!

Each morning the butler reserved us seats and a raft, and filled us up an ice chest with water, Piton Beer, and Coke Light! :) They knew us well!!!

We were excited to say the least to get home to some fresh fruit. This is the fruit we were presented with on a daily basis. These are their "apples" . I did try them, and they had hardly any taste, and it definitely was not similar to an apple!

They always advertised to visit the "SOON COME BACK" desk to book your next vacation with them! I found it quite entertaining that for such an americanized resort, they decided to let the marketing department get away with this!

While at Gordon's on the pier the 2nd time for the trip, i thought it would be fun to feed the fishes my bread ..... it surely did keep me entertained!

There is a GREAT look out spot in the middle of the island. On the way to the airport the driver pulled over and let us get out and take a few final pictures! here we are on the way home! :(

Back To Reality .... I dont think you can read it, but i had over 300 emails / texts, over 35 fb notifications, two voicemails, and two bbms! BOOO!! I want to go back to paradise!!