On January 3rd, Ahren and I walked away from the "Disaster Caused By Christmas" in our house, dropped the kids off with Gigi and Poppy, and hopped on a plane to St. Thomas to spend nine days in Paradise. I've never been so stressed out about a trip in my life - leaving the kids for nine days, right after Christmas, leaving the kids for nine days, did I mention that we were leaving the kids for NINE DAYS!?!? I was sure I would never be able to relax - I'd miss the kids way too much! But, Ahren's lifelong friend Tony was getting married, and since we did not want to miss the wedding, we put on our brave faces and hopped on the plane. I'm not sure the plane had actually taken off before I was in vacation mode. Kids? We have kids? Yea, it was good stuff.
We landed in St. Thomas and didn't even make it into the hotel before we started running into people we knew...or, people we were going to get to know. It was an immediate party, and we didn't have any kids to put to bed. Life was good. We stayed on St. Thomas only overnight before boarding a ferry in the morning to Tortola. The plan was to arrive in Tortola, take a cab ride to the other side of Tortola, and the get the next ferry to Virgin Gorda where we would be staying at the Bitter End Yacht Club for five days. The day didn't exactly go as planned, but it was the beginning of the Caribbean learning curve...get used to sitting and have another drink. You're going to be here awhile. And it's a pretty good technique - the more Pain Killers we drank, the less we cared that we were still sitting in the little cafe in Tortola, still waiting for a ceasar salad, and still not at the BEYC.
Arriving at the Bitter End was arriving in Paradise. It is an amazing resort filled with luxurious yet rustic cabins all nestled into the hillside, and along about a mile of white sand beaches. You can only get to the resort by boat, so it is quiet, secluded, and absolutely gorgeous.
During our five days at the resort we were lucky enough to spend time with a lot of Ahren's old friend from Westboro - some of whom we never see, and some who we see all the time. They are a great group and so much fun to spend time with. Tony and his bride, Sarah took very good care to make sure we had fun while we were there. They took us out for a sunset champagne cruise on Thursday evening, a snorkeling trip on Friday morning, a delicious and very fun rehearsal dinner on Friday night at the Saba Rock Resort, and then, of course, the stunning wedding on Saturday. It seems like all we did in between the activities was eat and drink. We would get up in the morning, go to breakfast, sit for at least an hour while friends came and went, then walk to the next restaurant and have lunch and drinks, and then it was time to get ready for dinner. It was so fun, and so relaxing.
On Sunday a complete stranger (to us) offered to take us to The Baths on his boat.We grasously accepted his offer, and then worried the rest of the day that he was going to drag us into the boulders and murder us. Luckily, he turned out to be a very nice guy, and it was because of him that we were able to see such an amazing sight. It was my favorite day of the trip.
After five amazing days at Bitter End, Ahren and I made our way back to St. Thomas on Monday. We had planned to stay an extra couple of days on St. Thomas, and while it was nice to have some time alone, we were less impressed with the beaches of St. Thomas than those in Virgin Gorda. By the time Wednesday arrived, we were ready to get back on the plane and home to see our babies. They had been fine, and so had we, but after nine days we were ready to cash in on all the hugs and kisses we had missed.
We are so grateful to Tony and Sarah for giving us a reason to go to the BVIs. We hadn't had a trip away without the kids since we had kids and we are glad that we took this opportunity. Gigi and Poppy were so wonderful to take the kids for us for nine days. They are good kids, but they have a busy schedule...one that I can't work without the help of my mom. So it was a big deal, and they did it for us happily. We are so, so lucky to have had such a wonderful opportunity, and I still enjoy looking back on the pictures and smile remembering how perfect those nine days were.
While we are already talking about our next trip to the BVIs, for now it's back to reality...a reality that we're happy to belong to.
Here and here are all of the pictures from the trip.
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