Craig and I had the opportunity to go to St. Lucia for an Optometry conference. Craig had been once in high school, but I had never really been to anywhere in the deep Caribbean. It was quite a bit of travel to get there, but it was definitely worth it. We started out by driving to Salt Lake City after work on Friday Feb. 13th. We listened to some great 90's music on the drive down and parked the car in the longer term parking and took the shuttle to the terminal. We took the redeye flight to Miami. This was my first redeye and neither of use slept much. We had a few hours in Miami before getting on our next flight to St. Lucia, I may have taken a quick nap on the ground. Once we got to St. Lucia (on Saturday) we got on a shuttle with others from the conference to head around the island to our resort. It was about an hour and a half drive and there was not a single traffic light, a lot of very sharp corners and honking of horns. We finally made it to the Secrets, adult only all inclusive resort. After we got settled we got Craig checked in for his conference and headed to dinner. We walked around the resort a bit to get familiar. We then headed back to the room to get to bed early, we were exhausted and ready for a good nights rest in a bed. We had a gorgeous ocean view from our room.
Sunday we slept in and just took it slow. Craig didn't have classes yet so we got familiar with the resort, walked along the beach, did a lot of reading by the pool, took out the paddle boards and just relaxed. It was really nice to have a full day before Craig had to start his classes. Because of the room that we had, we had access to the Preferred Pool, which just allowed us to get pool chairs easier and our own bar to get out mocktails from. We tried the steakhouse for dinner that night and was not disappointed, although by this point we were realizing that everything is on island time in St. Lucia. After dinner we just headed back to the room to head to bed early.
Monday morning Craig had to be to class by 7:30, so we were up by 6:30am. He headed to breakfast and then class, I went to the gym and then grabbed breakfast on my way back. I hung by the pool and walked along the beach until Craig got done with class around noon. We met for lunch and then hung by the pool, got drinks, and took the paddle boards out again. We then tried out a different restaurant at the resort. It was my 39th birthday and I can't complain about spending my birthday in St. Lucia.
Tuesday, Craig had class again in the morning and then we headed out to go zip lining with some of the optometrist that were there for the conference. It was a winding drive to the zip line area, some people were getting a little car sick, but once we got there it was a blast. The group we were with were super fun and the St. Lucian people are super laid back and very sarcastic by nature, so they employees were also fun to be around. After a shower we grabbed some dinner and then talked to the kiddos before heading to bed early.
Wednesday we were up for an early breakfast before heading out on an all day excursion with a bunch of the optometrists. We took a bus ride to the other side of the island before getting on a catamaran. We then got onto another van to the Sulphur springs where we covered ourselves in this sulphur mud before getting into some mineral hot springs. We then took the van to a waterfall to finish washing off all the mud. Back to the catamaran for some lunch and some snorkeling. On the way back people started to really take advantage of the open bar and getting a little tipsy, it made for an interesting ride back. We then had to take a van ride back to the hotel for a quick shower and then out to dinner.
Thursday and Friday were pretty much the same, we went to the gym and then grabbed some breakfast. Then headed to the pool and did some reading and relaxing. At some point we would head out on the paddle boards and walk along the beach. Eat lunch, order drinks, and just soak up the sun and our time together. Eat a yummy dinner and go to bed early.
Saturday morning we were able to get a work out in and get packed up before heading back to the airport, it was nice to not have to wake up super early. We had a long day of travel starting with our hour and a half drive to the airport and then a flight to Dallas. We then stayed the night at an airport hotel before our early morning flight to Salt Lake. We arrived in Salt Lake around noon and then got our car from long term parking before driving back to Star. It was a long day getting back but everything with travel went really smoothly. We were able to get home in time to wish Brooklyn a happy birthday. We had a wonderful trip, it was the longest we had ever been gone from the kids, luckily we have very supportive family and the kids love staying with their grandparents. Monday morning was a little rough with the long day of travel and the time change, but it was definitely worth it, it was such a beautiful island and such a great week away. While we were out of town our realtor had our house deep cleaned and also got the photos done for the listing so that we could be ready to put the house on the market shortly after we got back. It was a great trip and the kids did great as always with their grandparents.
