St. Thomas, Finally!

Oh my goodness! Just thinking back on this trip puts a smile on my face!! But this draft has sit on my computer for days incomplete- i have decided regardless tonight, it’s going up!

Here it is!

We arrived and we’re so pleased to find out the resort was gorgeous and not crowded in the least! We also got a free upgrade in our room for having to wait a whole TEN minutes for our room to be ready (woohoo)!

We loved how “low key” the resort was, I guess it’s a perk of not doing an all inclusive??   Pure Bliss…

These little guys were everywhere and BIG!

One of our many on site lunch views!

I loved the “endless” pool! There were two of them and the other one came complete with a swim up pool bar!

  I have ALWAYS been a lover of chairs made for being IN the water…

  Get the idea?

This was the marina at our resort, they had a ferry that ran every 5 minutes or so to take you to downtown SHOPPING!

  He loves to make me nervous!

Day 2 was filled with beach time and exploring downtown for dinner and shopping!

This scenic elevator was so cute but Lou was pretty terrified and contemplated the whole time what it was all made of to ensure it’s safety.. I think we need Tucker Jones to inspect it for us!

The path to the beach, where all of the iguanas liked to “play” with the tourist!

Can you see the little Iguana guys???

      Ferry time!

Apparently a lot of the shopping revolves around when the cruise ships come and go… we arrived as the boat was leaving and apparently we weren’t “enough” to keep them open… bah-humbug. That’s okay we know how to make good use of our time… Pina coladas!

  The night view from our Hotel, one of my favorite things about St. Thomas! The mountains come to life!

The next day was jam packed with excitement and a big breakfast as we got ready to explore the island St. John! Oh and of course we had to keep our promise to Kayla to explore Caneel bay while we were there- thanks KAYLA!

Oh yeah, and more iguanas!   We headed down to the beach bar to get some breakfast and snorkels before taking off and the ten minute path took about an hour this day because there was just too much going on… ughhhh!

Finally we piggy backed out of there and made it get our snorkels and food!

Oh  and Pina coladas… they are a breakfast item right?

Just before leaving for our adventure that day i saw this….

So they do climb in trees! No one is safe.

Then we finally made it to Red Hook, a cute little town where all the ferries leave from to go to the neighboring islands!

Ferry ride to St. Johns! 

Apparently about 80% of St.. John Island is actually a National park- my family would LOVE it there I swear!!

We arrived at Caneel Bay (a huge resort with tons of wildlife and 7 different beaches all with  great snorkeling- they are known for their sea turtles, deer and donkeys)!

This is the first thing we see as we pull into the gate…

Deer everywhere! I thought they were fake!

Lou had some exploring to do in some ancient ruins before finding the beaches at the resort!    We arrived and it was GORGEOUS!!

Lou, mountains, blue sky,  clear water, chairs in the ocean and chex mix… what more can a girl want!?!    We went snorkeling and met a very sweet family from Charleston with a girl a bit younger than me who was already a survivor of ovarian cancer! She was amazing and they gave us great tips about the resort and snorkeling!

We went snorkeling and saw some of the most BEAUTIFUL fish i have ever seen!

While snorkeling I spotted my first close up deer! So the snorkeling excursion was over- off to feed the deer!

We LOVE it here!

What a beautiful back drop! Photo Session1

       All things that make a girl happy in one spot!

  Sorry! Back to the sweet bambi’s!

The first time one just ate out my hand!! I’m love struck! 

   We loved playing with the panoramic option on my phone!   I had no idea deer eat flowers????   Lou’s turn to feed them!

We decided to walk around the resort to check out the other beaches and to look for the donkeys we had heard so much about and the walk was beautiful… nothing but open fields of green grass with beautiful trees and mountains in the back grounds!

His most favorite place ever.

He was so happy he didn’t even care that I wanted to take pics!

  Meanest tree ever!

We also spotted huge crabs and a mongoose!

         We stumbled upon another beach which was known for being the most calm beach at the resort!

the water was like glass, we even saw a turtle swimming by from the shore!

   Ok so the real reason we stumbled upon it was because i was trailing this family of deer!    The babies weren’t as friendly as the mommy’s but aren’t they adorable with their spots!  It’s starting to get dark so we decided to back to the ferry even though there was nothing in us that wanted to leave :(     Our sunset ferry ride home was quite romantic!

We made it home to eat at the hotel and crashed! I think we ate dessert for dinner that night.. I’m remembering chocolate cake with ice cream and a brownie????

Our last full day there was SOOOO much fun! we took an excursion to Turtle Cove Bay for the day and the boat ride and snorkeling was amazing!

We could not have asked for a better day or better weather the whole time we were there!

I always get a little bummed on boat rides when we arrive to our destination but seeing this little guy as soon as we got there perked me right back up! Time to jump in!    Lou had his own list of safety tips for me as we got in and of course he made the captain double check i was doing everything just right as they BOTH helped me in the water…I don’t even think twice to get embarrassed about Mr. safety’s rules anymore!  Snorkeling was a blast and as promised we did see tons of sea turtles, big ones and baby ones! I even got to watch as they swam to the top for air and then went back down… it really was ten times more beautiful than i ever would have expected!

Lou lasted a bit longer than me snorkeling and it’s a good thing.. apparently as soon as i got out he saw a barracuda!

Thank ya Jesus! Anyway so we loaded back up and the ride home was more of a booze cruise and snack bar set up with fruits and chips and salsa which was so cute! Oh yes and the best part… we all got tattoos!

This was the view from the water of our resort!

We had an absolute blast on board and since it was our last full day we decided we had to muster up the strength to go out somewhere fun to eat dinner…

How about we finish the day of turtle sight seeing at Fat Turtle- could they have made this decision any easier for us?!?!!

We got there just as it started pouring down rain and it was so hard we could barely hear ourselves talk- Alex was in heaven he loves storms and to sit right on the water to watch it?!?!

Just heaven. Our last day was pretty full since our flight didn’t leave until about 4pm. So we took one last look at the beach and then breakfast at the beach bar before heading down town to shop and eat at Gladys Cafe- our favorite lunch spot before heading to the airport..

I loved the ceilings at the beach bar.. sorry Lou!  

Until next time….

We shopped til’ we dropped and then headed to see Ms Gladys!

Lou just couldn’t believe all that fruit was “real” although you can tell everything she has was made from scratch! she says she keeps it out to see because it adds life to her restaurant- agreed.   The absolute best pina coladas!    Biggest Conch ever!

Well there ya have it! St. Thomas conquered by the Minnicks’! Lou decided the next time we go he wants to read up on renting a catamaran and charter it our for a week with another couple or two so we could do whatever we wanted!! ‘I’m super pumped about the idea but either way, one way or another we will be back!

Now I can get back to “real life blogging”!