Ready for a day on the beach!

Day Three, St. Lucia
January 24, 2012

Woke up to beauty surrounding us once again. We ate breakfast and suited up for a day on the beach. While we ate breakfast we had asked Roger to set up a beach cabana for us. When we'd finished breakfast and were slathered in sunscreen Roger arrived to escort us down to the beach. He'd set up two lovely chairs, a cooler filled with beer, juice and ice cold water, we had towels and a pristine view. We laid down to enjoy a day at the beach. The flag was yellow so we planned on floating about in the water once the day warmed a bit more. As we waited we dipped our toes in the surf. Well dipped is a relative term. As we stood there the surf engulfed our feet and tore the sand out from beneath it. I didn't fall as I stood there but slowly sunk. Mom came back from a brief jaunt along the beach to find herself 4" taller than I - normally she's 3" shorter! We had a good laugh and laid down to enjoy the shade our cabana provided us and the warm breeze blowing.

Failed sandcastle

We played with the sand beside our chairs, raking our fingers through the soft grain. It was very zen and relaxing. Sure enough I drifted off for a brief nap. A gentleman of the resort came by and offered us drinks, we happily accepted them and continued to enjoy our bliss.

No more feet!

Then it was time to enjoy the surf for real. Mom ventured out first, laughing it up the whole time. It looked like so much fun I just had to join in. Sure enough, it was! The waves were gentle enough and the salt water buoyant. Just lift your feet and enjoy the ride. The tide wasn't very heavy that day so we didn't get moved very much in or out from shore but stayed in the same place just relaxing. It was really a lot of fun! Then when the surf got a little chilly, I exited leaving Mom giggling away to enjoy some more of the sunshine. Man did that sun shine! It was warm and soothing and I kept having to tell myself that this was January! August warmth and it's the middle of winter!

 We decided to enjoy the buffet for lunch, this day's theme was Chinese. *laugh* "Chinese." Caribbean folk should stick to their own cuisine, after all it's so tasty! The buffet wasn't half bad actually, the shrimp crisps on it were really addictive! Over indulged, of course, I mean an open dessert table and a sundae bar?! They were really trying to kill my waistline! I forgot! Last night we attended the beach party and sampled some local fare. We only tasted as most of the buffet for that really wasn't what we enjoy. But that was our first taste of the choux-paste swans, lemon meringue tarts and festivals. So of course on the lunch buffet we had to have more!

After lunch, it was a late lunch - just before they shut it down at 3 actually, we decided to take it easy and relax in our pool. Around 5 we went back up to our room to enjoy our balcony for a while. We returned to the room to find a wonderful cheese plate! We snacked and drank champagne. At 6:30 we went to meet our butler for our escort to the Piton restaurant. It is the Caribbean fare restaurant at this resort. Our butler sat us at a table adorned with flower petals.

Our drinks arrived. I had asked for something with banana. It was devine! Smooth, creamy... oh so perfect. We later learned that this was called "The BBC" standing for Bananas, Baileys and Coconut. It's made by pureeing 1 banana with a shot of baileys, a little ice and coconut cream. I'm excited to get some coconut milk and start making them at home!

Enjoying Mom's Champagne

Oh BBC how I love thee.

 We ordered our meal. I started with the ackee (the national fruit of Jamaica: a mix between a squash and a melon, very very lovely!) and chicken puff pastry. It. Was. Amazing. Such a great mix of sweet and savory. We shared a bowl of the pea and bacon soup. I learned in Jamaica that peas in the Caribbean are actually what we call beans. They're like a mix between red kidney beans and black beans, I love them. I ordered jerk chicken for my main, mom had pulled pork. This jerk chicken is the way it should have tasted in Jamaica. It was spicy and savory. Oh the flavour indescribable! I ordered the trio of desserts: a fruit cake, coconut ball (pictured, I don't like dried coconut so I left it), and a piece of spice bread pudding. All very good. So far that had been far superior to our meal the previous night at Armando's. Although the risotto was perfectly cooked it needed some flare. Overall this day was perfect: relaxing, calming, zenful and fulfilling. It was off to another night of sweet dreams. ♥

Soooooo full!

Breakfast ♥

January 23, 2012
Day 2 - Official First Morning

Anticipating breakfast

We wake up to surf and sun! Last night when we checked in we were told to call our butlers on this cute little cell phone they gave us. We do so and meet our daytime butler: Roger. Silly me, never did get a photo of either of our butlers. He comes to the room so we can meet him and he is SO cheerful! Especially for first thing in the morning. He introduces himself and we start to get to know one another. He's so nice. He asks us if we enjoyed the crickets last night. We mention that yes we did and the frogs so much more! "Those aren't frogs." Oh? "That's Jim the frog." We laugh. This is very important - my dad's name was Jim. A very poignant coincidence. He asks us our plan for breakfast and offers to bring us breakfast on our patio. We think that's a great idea. We ask for assorted pastries and local fruit expecting mango, pineapple and assorted tropical fruit. After breakfast he promises us a private tour of the resort. When breakfast arrives, Roger runs off to get us some fresh coffee as the stuff room service sent us was not good enough for us. We were disappointed that fruit meant melon, which I'm not the biggest fan of. Turns out that all the melons were local and super fresh. I've never had watermelon or honeydew that tasty! Goes to show what it means for fruit being picked off of the bush when fully ripe.

Mmm... Breakfast

We enjoy breakfast - which was actually a lot of food. Oh, the Banana Bread was AMAZING. They do not undersell the bananas of St. Lucia. Let me tell you - a banana that's been fully ripened on the tree is like no other. They were one of the best parts of our trip!

The beach with a view of the bluffs - where our room was

Viewing the resort in style

Roger takes us on a tour of our resort. We see another group of people on a tour - but ours was private! Way cool. We explore the property, see the gifts shoppes, the spa, the different restaurants and most importantly: the beach. It's a beautiful stretch of pristine sand with waves crashing to it. We learn about the three flag system for the ocean: red - don't go in the water, it's too dangerous (a fact we learned about later but that's another day, another entry) yellow - only strong swimmers should go in & green - safe for all. The entire time we were there we never saw it green. It's not like Jamaica [where I went last year] the beach here isn't protected by a reef. Then again the whole resort is nothing like Jamaica. It's just so much more elegant. I felt the whole trip that the staff were just that much nicer and there wasn't as large a difference between the resorts and the rest of the island. In Jamaica you didn't feel safe leaving the resort. It's so desolate. Beautiful, but very poor. All in all I just enjoyed my stay with Sandals La Toc so much more.

 We settle in next to the main pool while Roger goes and fetches us some drinks. He brings Mom a Piton beer and Chu something pink in a martini glass. It was luscious! The flavour was strawberry and something with rum. It went down so smoothly! I asked for another one later in the day and asked about the name so I could ask for it at lunch. Roger wouldn't tell me. He said that it was a bad word and felt terrible saying it to a lady. Mom and I then nicknamed the drink the blushing bride. Felt it was fitting.

Mmm... so good.

While we enjoyed ourselves by the pool for a little while Roger went up to our room to unpack our bags for us. Yes, that's right. Unpack. ^.^ We return to our room to change into swimwear so we can walk the beach and get wet. We enjoy ourselves for the day finally wanting lunch at 3:30pm - well after the restaurants have closed. We call our butler and he brings us lunch in our room. We enjoy local mahi-mahi in a spicy hollandaise; with local fresh zucchini. Oh it was great. Again, so much better than the food in Jamaica. The food there really felt like it was shipped in frozen from Florida. Here everything was local and fresh. It was like night and day; making the food just that much better.

We then settle in at the pool near our room for after the peak sun to enjoy the outdoors. We dip our toes in the pool and decide it's too cold. So when the pool bar closes we're not sure where to get our drinks. We test out what our butlers and do for us. Sure enough our butler brings us drinks! By this time it's our other butler, Ficus. He's just as bubbly and fun as Roger. He's our evening butler. We have them from 7am to 10pm.

Smoothie Bar

Our first sunset

Getting ready for a night out

For the night we decide to visit the Italian restaurant: Armando's. It had a decent menu. The seafood risotto I had was actually amazing. It had shrimp, mussels and baby scallops (baby as in small) it was really tasty. I wrote in my journal that night that if I were writing on a computer my "!" button would break. The whole day was just bliss! It was the perfect temperature all day long, and all night. Perfection is being able to wear a light sweater and never sweat. Of course for my Mom it was being able to wear no sleeves at all. We have very different temperature zones. We fell asleep to another chorus of crickets, surf and Jim-the-frog. ♥

Day 1

☆Heads-up: Long, picture heavy post.☆

Saying goodbye to friends!

Meet Miss Chu (pronounced "shoe" short for Takochu): My travel companion. She is planning on accompanying me on every trip that I take from here on out.

January 21, 2012
Packing Day
I spend the day packing my long list of sunscreens and summer dresses. Miss Chu helps out by bringing up my suitcase and making sure everything was there.

January 22, 2012 - St. Lucia

Travel Day

Mom with passports all ready to go

Excited to go!

Checking In

Miss Chu impatiently wating

 We leave Edmonton WaaaaaaY to early. I manage to sleep on the plane a little bit and Miss Chu does too. 

Arriving in TO

Petrie & Miss Chu

We arrive in Toronto for a 2 hour lay over.  This isn't a bad thing as we meet up with my best friend Petrie for lunch! The lunch at Swiss Chalet was so gross but the company was well worth it. He even said hello and had a wonderful welcome for Miss Chu.

The plane ride from Toronto to St. Lucia was awful. It was long, cramped...
ugh, I don't travel well without room. I'm not a compact person. Unlike Miss Chu. Mom brought her iPad with her and we watched the movie "No Reservations". A very good movie even if it did send me into tears a few times. The worst? They wouldn't turn out the cabin lights.

In flight entertainment

Are we there yet?

Arrival Bouquet

Hors D'oeurves

We arrive to lovely, friendly people. We check in at the Sandals waiting area and Aaron comes to take our bags to the shuttle. We pop off quickly to visit the loo - as I said, it was a long flight from Toronto. We return to see that no one else's bags had been taken yet. Aaron asks if we are ready to go as we were about to settle in and wait for the rest of the bags to be loaded. We say that we are and he escorts us to a private car! A surprise from out butlers.

Rum punch

After an exciting, twisty road, car ride - complete with cold, local beer (Piton) & cold water we check in privately at the butler's lounge. While we wait for everything to be placed in order we are served hors d'oeuvres and rum cocktails. The shock of the evening? Mom admits that she enjoyed the rum cocktails! She hates, I mean HATES rum.



We decide to forego room service and enjoy the food that I had prepared for the plane ride but didn't end up eating, as well as our welcome food! We eat on our private balcony to a symphony of crickets and little frogs. The frog's croak sounds more like a bird - like the red and black birds I used to hear at the boat. I said to Mom as we ate dinner that the frogs are like our Caribbean Dad. Allow me to clarify, at home mom and I characterize my dad's spirit in the form of a crow. Crows seem to accompany us on all of our trips, ensuring we make it home safely. The first sound we heard upon arrival at the hotel was these little frogs. Thus my reasoning that the frogs are our Caribbean version of Dad. We watch the stars from the balcony and decide that the brightest star in the sky is my Gran.

We decide to enjoy a lovely walk of our end of the resort. Our rooms are up on a bluff, separate from the rest of the resort - which is quite nice. There's a pool, complete with swim-up bar, the Italian restaurant Armando's, and villas that all have their own plunge pools. During our walk we meet an adorable kitten, probably only about 6 months. I name him Patches. He has orange and black patches on white fur.

 We return to our suite and enter our bedroom to find welcoming towel swans along with an itinery for our week. We'd planned to go to the special butler service restaurant on Friday, January 27th for my Dad's birthday and our butlers had made reservations at the "Japanese" restaurant and La Toc, a special French restaurant.

We return to our room ready for bed and hunker down for the night serenaded by a chorus of wildlife. Onto dream land and further adventures. ♥

A bed just for Chu

Weeeeeeeeeeeheeheehee!

Tomorrow morning! I leave tomorrow morning!
Of course I have to be up at 5am and on the road at 5:30 for a 6:30 plane boarding. ><'

But:

So 5am doesn't seem so bad. I think that needs to by my phone wallpaper. Remind me why I'm getting up before the birds.

Two more sleeps

*siiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhh*
I'm worse than a kid waiting for Christmas! The wait is getting unbearable. I'm just praying that all of my build up to the trip doesn't disappoint me. Of course I'm getting away from the ugly that is my hometown. It did snow recently blanketing it in beauty but still with that snow we've had -30 all week. . o O (For those in Fahrenheit it's pretty much the same in both.)

I waannnnaaa go NOW! *stomps feet like a two year old*

In the meantime I think I'll take my own advice: "Keep calm and have a cupcake." I don't have cupcakes right now but shortbread will suffice.  ^.^

Five and a half days left!

I'm on the final countdown to my trip. I leave in five and a half days for St. Lucia. I'm so anxious for it to get here already!! The weather is turning miserable right now at home. It normally gets really really cold during January but this winter, so far, has been uncharacteristically mild. I guess we had hoped that the deep freeze wouldn't come. At least it snowed before the freeze so when you look outside it's a beautiful winter wonderland instead of an arid, dusty, and dead world. It's been so ugly here for the last few months. When it gets ugly here, it gets depressing; horribly, horridly depressing. I love snow, ever so much, so having a blanket of it makes me feel a lot happier than dusty and dirty, dead grass.
But now I need to concentrate on the surf and sand that awaits me.

See those four story rooms there? That's where I'm staying. *sigh*
Five more days, five more days.

I'll just concentrate on finishing up my travel companion and my ever so cute earmuffs!