St. Lucia Day 3-4

WARNING: Pregnant belly shown below. Do not look if you don't want to see.

We woke up and headed out to Anse Chastanet Resort (this is the resort that was on the Bachelor - Jake & Vienna). We tried staying there but they turned us away because we had a kid, so we decided to use there beach.




We pitched Athen's tent which he never went in and played around in the sand. We then blew up the dinghy for some Bingham family fun. This is our family tradition - the dinghy. We put Athen in his little life jacket and paddled out in the bay. Athen wasn't as relaxed as we would have like him to be. In fact most of the time he was trying to stand up and get out. Rick finally went over board and took Athen with him. They swam back to shore while I paddled the boat in. Athen wasn't so sure about swimming in the ocean with his life jacket on. The water was much cooler than his 90 degree water at swim class.





We hiked around and found some other beaches. We played in the sand and climbed on the rocks. We couldn't get Athen to leave the rocks. He loved them. He would have a handful of rocks and then see more so he would throw them down and grab the new ones. He didn't want to leave the beach.







That night we walked into town for some dinner. We went to a waterfront restaurant and had a delicious meal. We had Island chicken (coconut and sesame crusted chicken with lime sauce) and a pasta with fresh herbs, chicken and a creole cream sauce.



(The Bingham family tradition is to bring the dinghy with us where ever we go and enjoy the relaxing sun, beautiful waters and each other. The dinghy has been to the Oregon coast, Tahoe, Puerto Rico, Vieques Island, Hawaii, Grenada, Grenadine Islands, Jamaica, Carriacou Island, Dominican Republic, Mexico and St. Lucia. It is a world traveler.)

Day 4
We headed to Diamond Estate Botanical gardens and walked through the beautiful gardens. At the end was a beautiful waterfall.







We then headed over to the sulfur springs or the "drive in volcano" and took a tour.





We then headed over to Mourne Plantation Estate were we took a tour of the cocoa plantation, coconut plantation and sugar mill. They gave us samples of the coconut water from the coconut, coconut candy, chocolate beans hot and freshly roasted, and sugar cane juice. This was the best tour of the day and actually worth the money.





We they headed over to Colombette to our next destination - Crystals at http://stluciacrystals.com/ . Crystals was our splurge for the trip. The first night we stayed in the Calabash tree house. It had a large raised up bedroom, living room, and kitchen with a bathroom downstairs. It was in a tree so it had a big balcony off the back shaded by trees. We had our own private swimming pool right out side our door. The pool was a little on the cold side so we didn't spend too much time in it.









View from our tree house.

We headed into town for some groceries which is another Bingham family tradition - cooking a meal using local ingredients. Rick made us some coconut curry shrimp and rice with fresh rolls and guava passion juice. It was delicious. I love this tradition of ours.



Although the room was pretty cool, it wasn't really baby proof so it was a hassle having to follow Athen around everywhere. We weren't really able to enjoy it the way we should have.
They served us breakfast in our tree house the next morning. It was delicious. Pancakes with freshly grated coconut and maple syrup with, warm tea biscuits, fresh baguettes, veggie omelette and a fresh fruit platter - yummy!