The 9 hour drive home began today. Just when we thought we had found every McDonalds with a playplace, we found a new one!
After lunch Grayson insisted that he have dessert, an ice cream cone specifically. How does he know this? We never go to McDonalds and when we do we never get dessert. Is this something that started in TN with the grandparents?
We obliged, but Grandparent Detox starts tomorrow!!!
Today was not a fun day for Adam and I. Just A LOT of traveling, layovers, expensive airport food, yada, yada, yada. So, I thought I would share a bit of the fun that the boys had in TN while we were away. They did fabulous at both grandparent's houses. Maybe we should make this an annual thing!!
They went to the lake, went fishing, had two birthday parties, got to splash around at several places, went to the zoo, played with everyone's pets, and had a great time with family.
After three island tours (all fabulous) we were a bit toured out by today. We just wanted to go hang out at a beach because we hadn't done that yet at all this week. There was a beautiful beach within walking distance of the boat, so we headed over. The water was beautiful, but local saleswomen were everywhere trying to get you to buy local souvenirs. We stayed for a bit and then headed to our one place we wanted to go today.
The Princess Juliana Airport to see the jet blasts. A friend recommended that we do this and after watching a few You Tube videos, we knew we couldn't pass this up. We were greeted with this sign as soon as we stepped out of the taxi. Bring it on! We love danger!!
We arrived just in time to see jets of all sizes landing and taking off for about 45 minutes. It's incredible. Huge 747s landing right above your head while you play at the beach. No wonder it's ranked one of the two most dangerous airports in the world.
The planes fly over the water, over the beach area (which is maybe only 30 feet), over the two lane street, and land on the runway just over the fence. The jets are only about 20-30 feet above your head when they come in for landing. Incredible!
The landing
I tried to take a video of a 747 taking off, but had no idea just how powerful it would be (even though I had watched the videos. Sometimes I'm not a fast learner). My video was only a few seconds long because I was being pushed so hard by the power of the wind, sand and seashell are hitting your entire body, you can't open your eyes, and you're being pushed down the beach towards the water. When it was all over and I could open my eyes again, it had blown my ponytail holder out of my hair, Adam's flip flop was in the water, his sunglasses had flown off, and one of the guys we were with was bleeding! So, here's a better video from You Tube to show you just how exciting this jet blast really is. I felt like I had barely escaped a natural disaster.
After surviving our afternoon we had a lovely last dinner. Tonight we celebrated our anniversary and our wait staff sang to us and brought us a 3rd dessert!
Scott and Tara were celebrating their honeymoon, so they got cake and song too
Had they told us beforehand that this was the night we were celebrating, we wouldn't have ordered 6 other desserts! Eight pieces of cake was a bit much for the 4 of us!!
I guess our room staff also helped us celebrate
We had so much fun on this cruise. Each port was amazing. We got to relax without kids for a week and we celebrated my 30th birthday, our 6th anniversary, Adam's new job, and this trip finally completed the bet I won when giving birth to Grayson!!
Again we started this day without much on the agenda. We had not really heard much about St. Kitts, but as soon as we got off the boat there were tour guides ready to give us an island tour- for a small fee of course! We decided that since we didn't really have a plan that we would go ahead and do this. Our other island tours had been great. This one actually ended up being our favorite!!
St. Kitts has a LOT of monkeys roaming around. Our guide stopped to show us this bottle tree that the locals made by hanging empty glass bottles on the branches to scare the monkeys away when they would get in the tree to eat the mangoes. He said it only worked for a short time and then the monkeys were right back to their antics.
One of my favorite stops during our tour was Romney Manor, formerly owned by Samuel Jefferson, grandfather to Thomas Jefferson. The grounds have been turned into a botanical garden and are simply beautiful. Inside the house was a lady demonstrating how to make batik drawings on fabric. These are very large versions.
The house and grounds overlook a rainforest
continuing on our tour we came to the point where the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea meet. It is along that white line in the picture. On a more choppy day the two meet and begin making a whirlpool. We didn't get to see that today as the water was pretty calm.
We also stopped at Black Rocks. This is an area where the rocks are black from volcanic ash
Another beautiful lookout point along the side of the island where life is more commercialized. This is the area where many resorts and public beaches are. Over and over again today we were blown away with the beauty of this island. We said it was a hidden gem because no one ever talks about St. Kitts. We absolutely loved it.
We were really nervous about our dinner mates on this cruise (our dinner mates on our honeymoon cruise were a bit strange making dinner very uncomfortable). We really lucked out this time and had a great couple from Newfoundland, Canada who were on their honeymoon.
During our research beforehand on St. Lucia, everyone recommended that you go to a little town called Soufriere. It was said to be the prettiest part of the island. So, during dinner last night, our table mates said they were going on a Carnival excursion that went to this town. We found out that Soufriere was a good hour and a half away and would cost a lot to get a driver to take us there. So, we decided to spend the small fortune and go with the planned excursion. We were so glad we did!
The first part of our day was a bit of an island tour as we travelled to Soufriere. We stopped at several places along the way. The first was Marigot Bay. Absolutely beautiful. Because it is a small bay surrounded by mountains, many boats and yachts come here during a storm to avoid being damaged.
Our tour continued up and down very curvy mountainous roads (which Adam stomach was not fond of!!) Along the route, we saw several cashew trees and our driver stopped to grab the fruit from it. I had never seen where cashews come from. We were told that if you put this fruit to your lips or take a bite, it is so acidic it will give you blisters. And there is only 1 nut per fruit. No wonder cashews are so expensive!
Our next stop was at a botanical garden and waterfall. As soon as we started going through, it started raining, but it wasn't too bad and we were in the rainforest, so it was fitting. The plants and trees were beautiful
The water that flows here is a grayish color because of the volcanic ash and sulfer
there were also warm water springs
Diamond Falls
Our next stop was the little fishing village of Soufriere. Once here, we boarded our catamaran for the second part of our day
The twin pitons (the two mountain peaks behind us) are what St. Lucia is well known for. We had such a great view from our boat
Once we were on our way, they served us a Caribbean lunch that was delicious
We travelled for about 45 minutes and then stopped at an area to swim. As soon as we pulled in, we were surrounded by locals trying to sell us coconuts and conch shells. We bargained for a conch shell for the boys
We had so much fun today. We got to do so many things and see some really beautiful parts of the island. We are so glad we did this one!
We got dressed up again for our second formal night tonight
