At the beginning of February we took a couples trip to St. Thomas and St. Kitts with Brad and Ruth and DeeAnn and Darrell We had a wonderful time together in these beautiful islands! Each of us like to do different things so we each had our own cars and made our own plans. Most nights we got together for dinner and talked about all that we had experienced through the day. Here we are at the airport ready to get our cars.
We rented a house located just above Magens Bay, one of the most beautiful bays in the world in our estimation. The house afforded a spectacular view of the bay. Brad and Ruth and DeeAnn and Darrell stayed in the main part of the house on the top floor and I will say that their view from up that high was incredibly beautiful. Rick and I opted to stay in the Casita on the second floor, and while our view wasn't as broad as theirs, we still enjoyed a nice view of the bay.
Here's a look from the pool area. I will say it was very nice to have our own pool. It was an infinity pool with no view obstruction. We saw some beautiful sunsets from that pool!
....and moonsets!!
This is a view of Magens bay from a place called Drake's Seat. I love this view so much!
It is one of my top five views in the whole world!
And the beach was so fun! It is a three quarters of a mile of beautiful sand and water. There are plenty of trees for shade and while there were a lot of people congregated in the bar/restaurant area, we ventured further down and had a quieter experience.
There were pelicans all over the place! They were diving in making huge kerplops getting there precious fish dinners! We were playing in the water and one dove in not fifteen feet from us...startled me pretty good.
So fun!!
One morning we decided to take a chartered boat trip into the British Virgin Islands. Our guide Mike was so entertaining! We laughed a lot at the things he would say!
It was an hour ride over to Virgin Gorda where we enjoyed hiking around "The Baths". The Baths are cool rock formations on the edge of the water. We hopped off the boat and swam to shore and hiked through the baths. They were so neat......reminiscent of our amazing national parks at home only the rocks were not red. While we stayed with the group we would have LOVED to just venture off by ourselves to explore the area. We would have loved climbing ON TOP of those rocks, not just walking through them. Even so it was really fun to see what was there
We then went just outside Norman Island where we jumped in the water and snorkeled for half an hour or so. There were lots of fun fish to see, and it added to the fun.
Next we rode over to Jost Van Dyke and stopped at a beautiful beach for some lunch.
It was a pretty and large beach with about five different restaurants to choose from. We had about an hour and a half to spend there and then it was back to the US island:)
Another day Rick and I enjoyed doing a little shopping and sightseeing in Charlotte Amalie. It is fun getting to talk to some of the locals in the shops.
After our shopping stop we headed over to Secret Harbor Beach.
We both did a little snorkeling, but for some reason I felt uneasy. I kept thinking about sharks, so after about forty five minutes I went back in. Of course, Rick was not wanting to be done so he stayed out a little longer. He came back about fifteen minutes later with this gem.
The LARGEST HERMIT CRAB we have ever seen!
We took a fun video to send to the littles.
It was super cool!
Another beach day was at Sapphire Beach. We enjoyed the water and the local wildlife:)
One evening the three couples took a sunset dinner cruise on a catamaran.
It was nothing that we expected. I was expecting this huge boat with indoor dining and elegant tablescapes. It was more of a redneck dinner cruise with us grabbing a plate of food in a small buffet line, finding a place to sit on a bench and holding our plates as we ate.
Despite the challenges of that we enjoyed our two hour ride in the bay with some beautiful sunset views as well as a beautiful moon rise.
One of the few pictures of the six of us.
Here's a picture of us with our rental jeeps.
We got around the island quite nicely.
Next was our adventure on this small plane to the island of St. Kitts.
It was seriously tight quarters inside that thing.
Luckily though, it was a short and uneventful (thank goodness) ride.
We stayed at the St. Kitts Marriott.
Rick and I stayed here many years ago (maybe fifteen) when it was just brand new. It is still a very nice resort. St. Kitts is a very windy island. The wind did not stop The. Whole. Time. we were there.
One day while we were out and about we stopped at a food truck and got some jerk chicken.
Pretty Tasty!
Here's a shot of the ship prop outside the Marriotts lobby. It is supposedly a 1/2-scale model of the Nina, Christopher Columbus' favorite ship that helped him find the New World.
One thing that we did was take a ferry from Cockleshell Beach over to Nevis. It's just a ten minute boat ride. We had never been there and thought we'd check it out. We rented a side by side razor from Funky Monkey Sports and spent a few hours touring the island. It was quite a fun time!
We stopped at these cute shops and bought a few trinkets.
Next we drove into Charlestown and stopped at Alexander Hamilton's birthplace. We were able to learn a little about his role in the founding of those early Revolutionary years.
He sounds like quite an upstanding man.
Here's a little beach we found off the main drag. It was super windy on this side of the island but we just had a fun time riding around in our little ATV. I thought these fishing boats made a nice picture!
There were wild burros (and chickens) all over the island.
We got back to Cockleshell Beach around four and decided to go for a dip.
It was one of our fondest memories. It was the end of the day so there weren't many people. We just enjoyed being in the water discovering all of the shells under our feet. We kept bringing them up and laughing and gawking over them. We took a huge handful to take back to the kids. It was just a simple thing but it was really fun!
On another day, Rick and I took a drive around St. Kitts. It is quite a bit larger than St. Thomas but a little easier to get around. While St. Thomas is built on a mountain and the roads are steep and windy, St. Kitts is mostly just one main road around the coastal part of the island. There is a huge volcano in the middle of the island but there are no roads up in "the jungle".
We stopped at the Brimstone Hill Fortress which is an old British fortress built in the 1700's. It is in ruins now, but boy did it give us a good view. We could even see over to the island St. Eustacia.
On another day we ventured over to see a couple of different old plantation homes. This one was rebuilt to it's former glory. We enjoyed walking through it and then perusing the beautiful garden.
Next we stopped at Romney Manor, another old plantation. We marveled at this HUGE tree. I think it is one of the largest trees we have ever seen. It covered 1/3 of an acre.
Legend says if you kiss under the branches of this tree you will have an extra ten years of love in your marriage. Thank you, tree!
Inside the shop was a lady demonstrating the batik making process.
It is painstakingly long, but what a neat art.
Some finished products drying in the sun.... and wind:-0
I loved this little spot in the gardens. A fallen tree, ancient steps, and an old slave bell tower.
Interesting fact: this is the only slave bell tower still left on the island. After emancipation all of the bells were taken out of the towers because of what they represented. This one was allowed to stay because the slave owner was so generous to his slaves. Kind of cool:)
But the beauty of this spot was unforgettable.
On our way back from the Romney House we stopped at a local roadside eatery.
It was THE best food we had in St. Kitts!!
The locals know how to do it!
The Friday before we were to left to go home was Valentines Day. The guys wanted to go out on a fishing boat before they left, and I was all for that. I was ready for some down time at the pool.
I enjoyed every minute of my few hours alternately reading in my pool chair and dipping in the pool.
Here's a picture of our pool area as well as our room building.
Our rooms were quite nice. We were right next to D&D on the ground floor.
Brad and Ruth were in a different building. They had a nice suite but were on the second floor. We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast each morning in one of the resorts five eating establishments. We could choose from the huge buffet or the continental breakfast. We tried both.
It was a nice trip with family that we will always remember.
We love the Caribbean!
