St. Lucia

St. Lucia

After celebrating Addie's first Christmas and having a lot of fun family time over the holidays, Eric and I set off for our very first baby free vacation since Addie for New Years.  We went to St. Lucia for 5 nights, leaving Addie with my parents and sister while we were gone.  It was very tough to leave our little girl (I was very proud of myself for only crying once though!) but FaceTime was a life saver!  Eric had planned this trip as a surprise for me and I'm so happy we went.  We had a blast relaxing, spending some alone time, and even a little partying at Sandals La Toc.  Like they say in the islands, "No pressure, no problem" and that was the motto we lived by while we lived it up in St. Lucia.

This was our view in the middle of December, amazing!

The beach was absolutely beautiful - this looks like a post card!

This was one of our favorite spots, it was a pub that had football, good drinks, and delicious wings!

We had to get our pic in front of the Christmas tree!

Toy Boat Tour with King Nigel

We went on an excursion after a recommendation from a friend called the Toy Boat Tour and it was a BLAST!  It is one of the best excursions we have ever taken and we would highly recommend it to anyone who is visiting St. Lucia.  It's very similar to the Joe Knows Tour, but your group is a little smaller and it's cheaper.  Other than that it's the exact same thing.  We started off by taking a tour of the island by boat.  Our tour guide, King Nigel did an awesome job teaching us fun facts and the history of the island.  First, we stopped at the most famous bay in St. Lucia, Marigot Bay, which was home to Oprah, George Foreman, and the Jade Mountain hotel which was famous from Jake and Vienna's Bachelor season.  We continued on the boat and saw a beautiful view of the Pitons.  King Nigel even snapped a few photos for us.  After our sightseeing was over, we stopped for some snorkeling.   Eric and I have been snorkeling a few times and I'd have to say we weren't really that impressed.  It was fun, but we didn't really get to see a whole lot, plus our snorkel gear was having major issues!  Our next stop was the mud bath - another Jake and Vienna event, followed by rinsing off in the hot springs and waterfalls.  It was definitely a "tourist" thing to do, but a must see thing.  I will have to say though, the mud smells like rotten eggs because of the sulfur in it, the locals probably think it's hilarious that the dumb Americans pay money to cover themselves in mud and smell disgusting!  After that, we got back on the boat and the party began - rum punch for everyone!  The music was blasting and King Nigel made sure that everyone was having a great time!  Next, we stopped in town at a local restaurant for some lunch and the mac & cheese was amazing!  Finally, we got back on the boat for our drive back to the resort.  Along the way, we stopped to see some local kids cliff diving, which was pretty cool.  They would do just about anything for $1!  Overall, it was an awesome excursion and one of our favorite things about St. Lucia.

The most famous bay in St. Lucia, Marigot Bay

The Jade Mountain Hotel 

The Pitons

Posing with the Pitons with the hubby

Mud baths - it smelled disgusting, but it was still a blast

The town we stopped at for lunch

Kids doing back flips off of the cliff

King Nigel himself

Our resort, Sandals La Toc, from the boat

New Years Eve

They went ABOVE and BEYOND for NYE at our resort.  They closed down the main pool area for the entire day and spent a whole 24 hours preparing for it, luckily we were on our excursion all day.   They set up tents and tents of amazing food, hibachi, sushi, lobster, steak, crab legs, pretty much anything you could imagine.  They even had a separate tent just for dessert, needless to say I was in heaven!   Bars were set up about every 2 feet and the entertainment was top notch.  They had stilt walkers, live bands, fire dancers, etc.  At midnight, they topped it off with a firework display!  We spent the night with 2 of the couples we had met earlier in the week and we had a blast (and way too many shots!)  Needless to say, it was a New Year's Eve we will never forget!

Tequila shots with hubby on NYE

The guys on their 432843 shot of the night

Love you!

The fireworks were shot off from the beach and literally right over our heads, it was so cool

Our table

Happy New Year

more shots :/

Sandals Grande and the Street Party

Our last day there, we decided to take advantage of the Sandal's shuttle and visit the Sandals Grande resort.  It was only about a 20 minute drive and well worth it.  The beach there was amazing and the pools weren't nearly as crowded as ours, we were even able to get some chairs!   We spent the afternoon lounging by the beach, laying in the floats in the ocean, and ate some amazing pizza and crepes for lunch.  I think if we ever went back to St. Lucia this is the resort we would stay at.  It was super nice and one of the main differences is the water sports they offered.  Our water sports were closed all week because of the water, but you could do it all at the Sandals Grande.  We didn't end up doing anything, we were feeling pretty lazy on our last day, but if we would have been there longer we would have gone back to paddle board and jet ski.  After a long day of fun in the sun, we took the shuttle back to our resort just in time for the street party.  They set up in the parking lot and had tents of food, drinks, and great entertainment.  We were sad it was our last night, but we had a blast at the Street Party and couldn't wait to get back home to our little girl.

Love how clear the water was, it was so perfect

The swim up bar at Sandals Grande

Eric with his coconut drink at the Street Party

Fire dancers

The perfect way to end our perfect trip to St. Lucia