Honeymoon Part II

Okay so we left off talking about the great time we had snorkeling in Barbados. It was SUCH a fun excursion and well worthy the money. The next day was St. Lucia and we had an excursion booked to take a scenic tour up into the pitons and have a mud bath and bathe in the hot sulfur springs there. Well...We were supposed to meet at the pier at 9:30 and I set my phone alarm on the ship so we could wake up. However, I accidentally set the alarm according to my phone's time which was an hour behind the ship's time. I also set the phone in our room for a wake up call but wouldn't you know that I set it for PM? Wow what are the odds to mess up both alarms? Anyway, we ended up waking up around 8:00 and we got up and scrambled to get ourselves together. We knew we had to eat breakfast because the excursion was 5 1/2 hours and it didn't mention that lunch would be served. ALL that said to tell you that we made it to the pier at about 9:28 and I realized that I had left the camera in the room. OF COURSE, St. Lucia was one of THE most beautiful islands that we went to and OF COURSE they stopped for multiple photo opps along the tour. We were both mad. Really mad. BUT, no fear. The internet is amazing and I have found exact pictures of the exact locations we stood in. First off, here are pictures from our balcony that I took once we returned to the ship:

We boarded an air-conditioned bus and the actual drive up to the pitons was about and hour and a half. It was such beautiful scenery and we passed several beaches/bays, the outskirt of the rainforest, etc. We arrived at the town of Soufriere, which means "sulfur in the air", and you could immediately smell the rotten egg smell. The area is actually a volcano that folded in on itself and when you are looking at it you can see the steam coming out of the hot springs:

We took a tour down inside the "volcano" and then we went to do the mud bath. The mud and the water around the area is black. When sulfur mixes with iron the chemical reaction produces a black color. There are tons of other minerals in the mud and the water that is great for the skin and the sinuses.

We put the black mud on each other and a lighter clay mud on our faces (we were REALLY hating the lack of camera here) and the guide told us about how the Bachelor (Jake) brought Vienna here on one of their dates and they stayed in the luxurious resort across the street. She said they sat right in that cove in the above picture and so they now sometimes refer to this as the bacherlor springs. LOL Here's a pic. of the couple in front of the pitons:

I never liked her but anyway....After the mud was all over us we walked right up the way and got in the hot springs. The guides told us it was obviously hot but they kept saying our bodies would adjust. That never happened for me. I got up to about my belly button in the water and I couldn't go any further it was just too hot. William loves hot water and he was able to submerge but even he couldnt stay but for a minute. Afterwards, our sking was so smooth we could definitely tell a difference!

We left the spring and boarded the bus for the ride back. We did some shopping on each island and we actually bought a Tshirt at each place we visited! We boarded the ship and jumped into our nightly routine again! The next morning was St. Kitts and we had a nice slow morning waking up when we wanted, a slow breakfast, tv, etc. We eventually made our way out to the island where we did a lot of shopping and sight-seeing on our own. For those of you who may not know William and I traveled to Africa last summer. Ever since then the boy has been obsessed with monkeys...well probably before then but Africa peaked his interest. As soon as we entered the town we saw monkeys. They were wearing diapers and island clothes. LOL. We both got to hold them and take pictures:

We didnt go to the beach at St. Kitts which was a good decision because we heard it was one of the dirtier ones. After a fun day of shopping and playing with monkeys we boarded the ship again and we were ready for St. Marteen on the final day. St. Marten (or Marteen) is half dutch half french. Hence the different pronunciations. On the dutch side of the island the beaches are beautiful and you actually have to wear a swimsuit. On the french side the beaches are pretty but they are also nude. We HAD to catch a glimpse of each side. Once we left the ship we took a water taxi over to the beach (you can see the yellow boat which was the taxi. We stopped for a lovely picture in front of the crystal clear water and we rented an umbrella/chair set and spent the majority of the day there on the dutch side:

We wandered over to the french side, chuckled a little because 98% of the population was over 65 and naked, and so then we headed back to the Dutch side. We stopped for a snack and a drink at this cute little restaraunt and went back to our chairs and enjoyed swimming in the last bit of carribbean water that we could before boarding the ship.

We spent our last night on the ship having fun and soaking the last minute up. We went to bed late by accident and we had to get up early the next morning to finish packing, eat breakfast, and get transferred to the airport. OF COURSE, I set the cell phone alarm wrong again. This time, I was on the ship's time but I forgot to take in daylight savings time which put the ship time back on the right time of the phone and so we woke up at what I thought was 6:00am, only to discover that it was really 5 am. We needed the extra packing time though. We got to the airport at San Juan and found out that our plane wa delayed and that we would miss our connecting flight in philadelphia. After about 30 minutes we finally worked it out and it was actually more to our advantage. We got home a little later but we flew into Greensboro which put us only about 30 min. from our house and so our parents were able to bring us our wedding presents and stay the night. Monday William had required classes so he had to get up and be there at 8 AM! My parents stayed long enough on Monday to help me get presents put away and get clothes washed etc. We are so thanksful to have mom and dad help us so much and for them taking off work to get us home. The honeymoon was amazing and we had such a great time. We were sad for it to end but we were also excited to start our newlywed lives on the mainland!! :)

Next blog I will start out with Rehearsal dinner and actual rehearsal and work our way up to the wedding!