St. Lucia

St. Lucia is a small Island In the West Indies, down by Venezuela. We decided to go there because it is part of the Winward Islands which is close to where we went on our honeymoon. We loved it so much we thought we would try out another Island.

The plane ride was horrible. We ended up having to buy our tickets with in the two week mark which means we paid too much and we didn't get a good flight. In fact it was the only flight that left when we wanted to go. We left SFO and headed to NY, JFK. We arrived at JFK at midnight. Luckily we were able to bring the car seat on the plane with us and we had an extra row to use. However, it didn't make much of a difference. The little man had a difficult time about half the trip. Our next flight was to Atlanta, GA at 6:00am which meant we were in the airport for several hours during the middle of the night. Unfortunately they wouldn't check our luggage all the way through since it was a night flight. If we picked up our luggage in NY then we would be locked out of the airport until 4:00am when they opened again. The lady at Delta advised us to leave it in baggage claim and go to the office in the morning when they opened at 4:00. The sweet lady saw a poor pregnant lady and a one year old boy and decided to help us out. She brought out 3 cots, blankets, pillows, food and water for us to sleep on while we were waiting for our flight. We pitched Athen's tent in the corner and tried to get some sleep.

What a joke. Did we honestly think Athen would sleep in his tent in the airport with all the lights and noise - no way. The kid was WIRED!. He was soooo tired that he couldn't sleep. He wanted to run all around and was full of energy. Rick tried putting him in the backpack and walking around so he would fall asleep - no luck. He tried putting him in his car seat and strolling him around in a wheel chair - no luck. Rick was up with him until 4:00am. I did my best to try and sleep but of course no luck for me either. I was able to relax on my cot and was much more comfortable that I was expecting to be but still no sleep. Finally after brushing his hair and singing to him in his car seat in the tent Athen fell asleep. Rick and I laid down as well at 4:00am only to wake up an hour later to pack up, head through security and board the plane. Our flight to Atlanta was ok, Athen had his car seat so we were all able to get a little sleep. We then boarded a plane to St. Lucia which was full so Rick held Athen on his lap. 20 hours later, we all arrived in St. Lucia.

We hoped into our rental car and drove straight to the beach in Vieux Fort (about 5 minutes from the airport so Rick could do a little kiteboarding. Athen and I played on the beach and enjoyed the afternoon and evening. The weather was perfect with a nice windy breeze. We then began our search for a place to stay. The few places with we were hoping to stay (that said they had availability when we emailed them the week before) were no longer options. We were finally able to find a small little guesthouse in town called City View Guesthouse. It had a small kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom. Getting Athen to bed was a challenge. He did not like his new little tent and it didn't contain him. He kept busting through the door and escaping. Again this kid was wired! It took us probably an hour to get him to bed. He had to brush his hair (which he loves) and sing him church hymns in the dark and once he was asleep slip him into the tent. We were beginning to wonder what we got ourselves into.

The next morning was Sunday. We love going to church in a new country. This time we decided to look it up on lds.org to find the location and time of church. We usually hope in a taxi or ask the locals where the Mormon church is. Lds.org had the wrong time for the branch and only gave us map coordinates so it wasn't much help. Luckily we ran into some missionaries in town and they showed us the way. It always amazes me that in a foreign land where nothing is familiar you can walk into a church and immediately feel a familiar feeling - the spirit and feel an instant connection and bond with people you don't even know. Everyone is always so welcoming.

After church we drove to Soufriere. A little fishing village with very colorful houses doting the hillside. We planned to stay 4 days there and make small trips from there. On our way we stopped by the Piton mountains which are the largest mountains in the Caribbean. We walked around a bit.







Once again we spent some time in Soufriere looking for a place to stay. We ended up staying at the Still Beach Plantation which had nice clean and beautiful grounds. We got showered up and headed out to eat. We ate dinner at the Mango Tree Restaurant which was delicious and expensive. The restaurant was set high up in the mountains overlooking the water and the Piton mountains. You couldn't have asked for a better view. It had the potential to be a very romantic dinner with the sun setting in the background except that we had a cranky little man with us. WE had spicy red curry shrimp, Thai garlic chicken with vegetables, rice and tomato cucumber salsa. It was very flavorful. Athen had a $10 hamburger from the kids menu.




After dinner we headed home and put Athen down. This time we knew what to do and it only took 20 minutes of singing and brushing his hair to get him to fall asleep. Once he was asleep we stayed up playing games.