Day 3 of the honeymoon was bright an early. We headed down to another delicious breakfast complete with smoke salmon and then we were off to our Land and Sea tour to see the sights of St. Lucia.

The Land portion of the tour started with seeing some of the city life in St. Lucia. We drove up to the only college on the island and learned a little about the education system in St. Lucia. While at the college we saw a Calabash Tree, the national tree of St. Lucia. It was nice to hear a bit about the island politics and stuff.

Next we drove through a banana plantation. Bananas are a huge export in St Lucia but they export mostly to England. Then it was to an overlook of Marigot Bay. We'd been in Marigot Bay the previous day so it was nice to be in the mountains above to get an overview! While at the overview we tried 2 local specialties: spiced rum and banana ketchup.

Spiced Rum is strong (think 151) white rum that has tons of spices (cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, nutmeg, bay leaves, anise, etc) in it. Its almost like a spice extract! And it is strong beyond belief but good. Banana ketchup tastes like regular ketchup at first but with a little banana aftertaste. I have known for a while that you can make ketchup out of nearly any fruit but I'd never tried it! It was delicious. We bought a bottle.

We also stopped in a small fishing village called Anse La Raye. It was a beautiful spot but also a very poor small town. It was an interesting experience but I also think a good one. When you're at the resort you tend to think that life on a Caribbean Island is so idyllic but I was glad to have the chance to see a little more of the reality of the island.

Then it was off to the botanical gardens and a beautiful waterfall. The botanical gardens were one of my favorite things the whole trip because I LOVE plants. Walking through the forest their was like being in a garden of houseplants because so many familiar houseplants grow wild here. Then we hiked to a beautiful waterfall for a quick picture before lunch. Lunch was at a local restaurant with a lovely view of the pitons. We had some green fig salad. In St. Lucia they often cook with green bananas aka green figs much like you would a plantain. I really liked it. It was sort of like tuna and potato salad mixed together.

St Lucia Recipes – Green Fig Salad
INGREDIENTS:
Two- medium sized hand of green bananas
Three tea spoons of Mayonnaise
¼ pound salt fish
½ cup mixed vegetables
Two cloves of garlic
¼ cup chopped celery and parsley
One lime

After lunch was volcano time! We drove by the top of the steaming volcano. It reminded me of Yellowstone and then we went down to the mudbaths where we got to play in the mineral rich volcanic streams and coat ourselves in gray mud. It was like a giant mud mask. (P.S. They also did this on bachelor) Poor Andy had a sunburn on his feet so it hurt him a lot 'cause it was HOT! The water and pool you get into is 120 degrees!!! I barely was able to get into it myself. It was really fun and memorable.

After the volcano adventure we headed into Souiffre (which translates into sulfur in the air since its downwind of the volcano) to board the catamaran! We took in the sights and stopped for some more snorkeling. And then we sailed home while we sipped on rum punch. The highlight of the catamaran trip was the man we met from Biloxi. When we boarded we met up with a couple other groups. One included an older man in a flag print speedo... err. Eventually later he got dressed and it started to become apparent he was from our neck of the woods. He had on PFG shorts and his topsiders. Eventually I swore I heard him mention Alabama football. I snuck a sweet picture of him and begged Andy to let me go introduce myself to him. I wanted to prove he was from here. Luckily, later in the cruise he approached us! He saw Andy's t-shirt and said to him "there's a McGuire's in Pensacola, Florida" to Andy's McGuire's shirt. Andy quickly responded that his shirt was from THAT McGuire's. We chatted with the man for a few minutes and learned he works in Pascagoula like Andy! He tried to find a business card but didn't have one with him (darn). Then he made a racist comment about one of the crew members. Ah, so glad that southern charm made its way to St. Lucia. That was the end of our time with the man from Biloxi.

We got back to the resort around dinner time. We tried to go to the Piton restaurant at the resort but it was packed so we headed back to Neptune's. We have some marinated olives as our first appetizer. Then I had scallops and Andy had portobello mushrooms with crunchy onion straws. Andy LOVED his appetizer. We split a seafood for 2 dinner with shrimp, crab legs and fish! Then, I had a marscarpone lime cheesecake and Andy had a fig custard. Its safe to say the portobellos and fig custard were on the top of Andy's list for our honeymoon food. We polished off the night with a few more drinks but went to bed early because it was a loooooooooong day!

After a good night's sleep, Andy and I were pumped to really start the honeymoon! I got up at 8am to run down to the "culinary relations desk" are the resort. Several of the restaurants are by reservation only and you have to make your reservations for the week at this desk.

I was expecting it to be a bit of a disaster. Sandals has a variety of room types and we were staying in the cheaper non-concierge/non-butler rooms. Again, we read too many online reviews because some reviews made it seem that if we didn't have a concierge to make these reservations for us, we'd never get in. I guess the higher level rooms can book reservations before they arrive. I'd heard from people that they never got into certain restaurants. So, I was there at 8am to make sure I was one of the first in line.

No worries! I got reservations at all 3 restaurants. Kimonos, the Japanese steakhouse, had an openings at 9pm that night so I scooped it up. We knew we'd be on our snorkeling excursion until the evening so we figured a late dinner would be nice afterwards.

Andy and I headed down to the breakfast buffet. We opted for the buffet every day instead of some of the sit-down options. I was sold when I saw smoked salmon and capers! YUM!! Andy and I ate that every morning.

After breakfast we went down to the beach. We grabbed a spot on lawn chairs and sat down to enjoy the morning. I even got to have nice bloody mary! We quickly learned why people seem to hang out more on the pool deck than the beach itself... The beaches on St. Lucia are technically public so there are some local tour groups trying to get you to sign up for their tours. I've heard from some people that this is the ONLY way to do it since its cheaper and more "local" but Andy and I had already picked our excursion through tour companies that work with the resort.  Unfortunately, one of the tour groups, Son of Man, was rather pushy so it was sort of annoying. Sandals has security guards at each walkway down to the beach which I quickly realized was to keep these tour groups from coming onto actual property. But, as more people came onto the beach it diffused things and we enjoyed our time.

While lying on the beach, one of the watersports coordinators at Sandals came up to us and asked if we'd be interested in a free kayak excursion with him at 11am. He was gathering a group to take on a new trip he was trying out. I immediately signed us up! We had just enough time to swap out some of our stuff and buy an underwater disposable camera.

Kayaking was VERY long but very pretty. It lasted a couple hours and we went all over the place. But, it was 5 couples total and our guide. Plus, a small powerboat with a photographer and couple other watersports guys followed to take pictures and rescue us if we got too tired. The trip was beautiful but Andy and I are a TERRIBLE kayak team. We drift to the left no matter what we do. After 2 hours we still sort of sucked at kayaking together but it was fun and we made it. The water was crystal clear so we could see fish and tons of urchins below. We even kayaked through an amazing arch!

After being exhausted by kayaking, we returned to the resort for lunch at Neptune's, a Mediterranean restaurant. We had some dolmas (rice stuffed grape leaves with tzatziki sauce) for an appetizer. Then Andy had a veal burger and I had a roasted vegetable wrap.

Then it was time to go snorkeling on the excursion we'd signed up for. We met at the watersports area and boarded a mini-bus that took us to a nearby bay where the Sandals dive boats are docked. We hopped onto a 46ft boat to take us on our adventure. On the way, we pulled into one of St. Lucia's prettiest spots, Marigot Bay. Some famous celebs have homes here and its one of the safest harbors during hurricanes not only in St. Lucia but of most of the neighboring islands. We docked, walked around, took some pictures and then continued on our way.

On the dive boat, we were served either champagne or St. Lucia's local beer, Piton. Eventually, we arrived at our snorkel spot, Anse Chastanet. Its fairly well known as snorkel/dive site around the Caribbean. It was amazing. And for you Bachelor fans, the resort located on this cove was one of the locations Jake and Vienna visited in their season (ick! I hate them both). You'll have to wait until I develop the underwater pictures but we saw tons of fish, christmas tree worms, sponges, soft corals, etc. YAY! The only annoying part was being forced to wear the inflatable bright yellow snorkel vests. I expected that since they want to make sure we don't drown but its a bit humiliating for 2 people who make their living as marine scientists. Plus, they're UNCOMFORTABLE. oh well, it was pretty so I didn't let it bother me. After snorkeling, we took a short boat ride around a bend to snap some pictures in front of the Pitons before we enjoyed the scenery on the ride home!

(Click on the photos above to make them larger and see captions!)

When we finally got back to the resort we decide to take s swim and hit the swim up bar which is where we discovered our favorite new drink... the dirty banana. Its a frozen blended drink with a whole banama, rum, coffee liqueur, chocolate liquer and some other secret ingredients I'm trying to figure out! AMAZING! Apparently, they're the most popular drink at the resort. We were hooked, especially Andy.

We finally showered and changed for our late dinner at Kimonos. We arrived at the Japanese steakhouse a little early and got to lounge a little. Then, the fun began. Andy had pork dumplings for an appetizer and I had sushi with caviar which I'd never had with sushi before. There's always fish eggs involved but never real caviar.

For the main meal, we got a trio of 3 meats. We got cilantro butter Mahi Mahi, steak in a hoisin style sauce and teriyaki chicken. Then the usual fried rice, vegetables, etc. It was good! It was only slightly fancier than your normal japanese steakhouse so I think the reservation requirement is purely a logistical one since you really need 8 people arriving at the same time to fill a table.

We were the only ones at our table that stayed for dessert. There was a chocolate buffet back in the main part of the resort so most people headed there. I stayed and got a coconut filled wonton wrapper (think almond joy filling) with a fruit sauce. I loved it. Andy got a pumpkin mousse with a tropical fruit gel on top. He liked the mousse but wasn't a fan of the texture of the fruit gel thing. All and all it was a lot of fun!

Andy and I left for our honeymoon in St. Lucia on the Monday after our wedding. We knew we didn't want to try to leave Sunday because we'd be busy and have people in town but it became clear on Sunday afternoon that we wouldn't have minded an extra extra day before leaving.

I know you're honeymoon is supposed to be relaxing but getting there is still stressful. Sunday after the wedding we went back to our house to pack and then drove over to Gulfport, Mississippi for the night. Our friends/wedding party members Joseph and Amanda live there very close to the airport. We decided to crash with them since our flight was at 6am and we didn't want to have to get up and make the drive in the morning. Good choice! Plus, since Amanda dropped us off we saved on parking (THANKS!).

We made it to St. Lucia with little event. The flight wasn't too bad. I passed the time watching the lovely in-flight entertainment, Mr. Popper's Penguins. The only redeeming factor was the penguins.

When we got off the plane we were quickly ushered through a small little tropical airport, into customs, and quickly to baggage claim. After that point we entered "sandals world". We stayed at the Sandals La Toc. There are 2 other Sandals resorts in St Lucia, the Halcyon and the Grande. Its clear at the airport that Sandals dominates there. We were quickly ushered to a lounge area, painlessly got our bags tagged so they'd get on the right shuttle and boarded a minibus to take us to the resort.

Now, the online reviews made us a little wary of this shuttle ride. Not wary enough to pay hundreds of dollars for a private car or helicopter ride but still wary. People have talked about how long and awful it is. I'm happy to tell you we had no such issues. The ride was about an hour and 10 minutes. St Lucia is incredibly mountainous so the road as very windy and up and down but we had no issues with it. The driver was very nice and funny and pointed out many sights along the way.

When we arrived at the La Toc, we got comfy seats in the lobby and a glass of rum punch. We quickly filled out some info and got our room keys. Next, we went to the front desk to establish a line of credit. Sandals does not believe in cash AT ALL. You charge everything to your room from excursions to gift shop purchases. Its nice because we tossed our passports and valuable in the in room safe and Andy only had to worry about carrying the room key!

After making it to our room, we took a nice walk around the resort. We had a little over an hour to kill until a formal orientation so we just enjoyed the time to look at the view.

Sandals is an all inclusive resort so you can basically eat and drink whenever, where ever. The only thing not included were some excursions. It super convenient because you can wander up to any bar and order a drink. After orientation we went to a manager's reception with wine and cheese and a raffle. We had some wine and walked around to tables from each "department" at Sandals. We talked to the dive/snorkel guy. We signed up for a snorkeling trip the next day. There are snorkeling trips everyday but on Tuesday afternoons there is a special trip to a marine reserve to snorkel for $25 each. I heard marine reserve/possible sea turtle and I was SOLD! Then, the raffle started and we WON a prize. The resort has photographers EVERYWHERE and you can buy images from them for a ridiculous amount of money. But, we won a mini photo shoot and 5 free prints! YAY! We started married life as WINNERS!

Then it was dinner time. Most of the resort restaurants were closed because Monday night is a beach party. We wandered down to find a buffet of foods! First thing I got was a coconut. The guy chopped the top off and stuck in a straw. I'm a sucker for all cheesy tourist things. At least coconuts are actually one of St. Lucia's major industries.

We had some terrific jerk chicken straight from the grill and tons of sides including the octopus salad that Andy ate. Andy also wandered to the beach bar to gather us some other drinks (jack and coke/diet coke if I recall, not too tropical yet, we were still channeling 'bama I suppose). Eventually I made it to the dessert buffet where I had a creme puff shaped like a swan (ok, I also had like 5 other things, I'll be honest).

After dinner we took a quick dip in the main pool at the resort but we were really too exhausted and decided to just go to bed.

Back in the room we had a bottle of champagne waiting! Since both our feet were still incredibly sore from the wedding we decided to soak them in the jetted bathtub. So we poured some champagne and sat on the edge of the tub. It was really nice and needed. I could seriously barely walk at this point. Then we went to bed in our giant comfy awesome bed.

A perfect end to our first day in St. Lucia.

Nope, you're not seeing things... I'M BACK!!!

After a long long break from blogging, I'm here and I don't even know where to begin. First, I'm MARRIED!!!!! Second, I have tons to catch up on. I plan to recap the wedding, share pictures and actually let everyone in on the decisions I made. I've kept lots of things like invites, programs, etc a secret from the internet world so now that the big day is over I'm going to take the time to go back and show you what I did, how I made it or how I picked it! Plus, I still have "wedding" related things to do like change my name, write thank yous and use all our amazing wedding presents.

But first, I think I'll start with the honeymoon recap!!! Lots of you readers attended the wedding but no one knows anything about our honeymoon so I thought I'd start there (also, I have pictures from the honeymoon but not from the wedding yet).

We'll see how long after the wedding I can drag out this blog... I think it'll be a while :)