St. Lucia

While our kids were at home apparently doing this:

We woke up to this:

We immediately went outside to see the resort, having only seen it in the dark so far.

It did not disappoint.

Wow.

We found the buffet breakfast where I had delicious French toast and tried the sugar cane--which does not taste as good as it sounds.  It sounds like a stick of candy; it tastes more like a stick... like from a tree.

After breakfast we jumped in a kayak and set out to paddle what turned out, in our enthusiasm, to be all of Rodney Bay.

All pictures are of the trip out, since on the return paddle we were too busy panting and wondering if we were going to spend our whole week lost at sea, and how it was that the bay was so much bigger on the way back than on the way out.

We probably paddled so far, in part, because we couldn't stop marveling at how clear and turquoise the water was.

We did eventually make it back to terra firma, and then grabbed our new snorkel masks that Jason bought specially for the trip, and plunged into the water from the beach. 

We saw all kinds of fish, including an eel, little green guys that fed in the underwater forest of seaweed, and long pokey ones that we later learned are called trumpetfish.  We also saw these cool little hedgehog-looking things that I wisely decided at the last second not to touch.

We ate lunch at 2pm (gasp! that's how I knew we were really on vacation) at the Jerk Shack, after which we snoozed for a while in beach chairs and then played on some swings in the shallow water at the beach.

Getting on toward evening, we ended up in the giant hot tub, where we met another couple, thereafter known to us as Brian and Becky Hot Tub.  In the course of the conversation, they not only told us about several good drinks to order, but warned us that we needed to set up all our dinner reservations for the week.  

Armed with this essential information, we headed off to shower and then managed to get into Bombay, the 5-star Indian restaurant.  It was fantastic.  We may have gotten in because it was "Barbecue Beach Party" night, which we mostly skipped, but wandered back after dinner in time to see the super cool steel drum band.

We left when the dance show started to go sit by the fire pit at the clubhouse, and then to play billiards in the large hall on the way to our room.  I managed to pull off a move never seen before, in which I chipped the ball over the edge, sending it crashing and bouncing and echoing along the hall--I caught up with it just before it went down the stairs.  

I did not win the billiards game.  

We went to bed happily satisfied with a day of kayaking, snorkeling, eating, drinking, playing; surf, sand, and fun.