Our Island Adventure, Part Two

As promised...here are some of the beautiful views of St. John!

If you ever make it to St. John, you have to stop in at this little hole-in-the-wall bar called Woody's. They have "the best happy hour in the world." And they just might be right about that. From 3-7 (I think), they have $1 domestic beer and $1 well drinks. Let's just say we didn't have to spend a lot of money there to have a great time. :)

Back at our resort, hanging out at the Sunset Grille...

And with one of the best bartenders in the world - Bobby!

He introduced me to the wonderful world of Ting. If you're ever in the islands, try it. It is a carbonated grapefruit juice that is SO good.

We had such a wonderful time on our honeymoon...I'm ready to go back!

I never understood what a big deal the honeymoon is...until I went on mine. It was such a great time for the two of us to have "us" time. I panicked a little the day after the wedding because I didn't feel "married". By the time we got back from the honeymoon, I definitely did. I loved spending every moment of every day with my sweetheart.

As I've said before, I'm a lucky girl. :)

Our Island Adventure, Part One

Our honeymoon began bright and early - we had to get up at 4am to get to the airport!

Here we are in the Tampa airport, waiting for our flight to leave...


We flew from Tampa to San Juan, Puerto Rico. When it was time to board our second flight, they walked us outside and we saw this:



Seriously...propellers?? Neither of us had ever been on a plane this small! And check out the great location of our seat - right next to the propellers!



We made it safely into St. Thomas, took a taxi to our hotel, checked in and were able to get right into our room. Isn't it beautiful??

The view from our balcony...

And the view the other direction...

We took a walk around the resort, and it didn't take long until we saw iguanas...EVERYWHERE! Here they are, all over the hill leading up to the resort!

On our exploration we found a little restaurant that would become our home base for the week - Coco Joe's! It was a great place right on the beach, very laid back and casual. We loved it.

The next day, we set out to explore the town. As you may remember, when we were in the islands, Hurricane Bill came dangerously close! But it never affected us - at all. Lucky us!

Here we are on our walk into town...

And at a restaurant we found in town. Yummy sandwiches and, of course - Corona!

We ended up back at Coco Joe's that night for dinner...look, we match! :)



The next day we spent some time at the beach. Here's my husband, on the way to the beach, with one of the gigantic iguanas...

Isn't he good looking???

We also laid out by the pool, and saw these critters...there must have been about 20 of them right below the pool deck!

But this was the view from our lounge chairs!

That night we decided to check out a local spot - Paradise Point. It's a restaurant/bar with live music on the top of the mountain. Isn't it lovely?

But the not so lovely part? We had to ride one of these to get up there - yikes!



But it was definitely worth it.

The next day we decided to venture out to the island of St. John. We had to take a ferry to get there...

I can't wait to show you how beautiful the island was! Here's a sneak peek from our taxi...

More to come soon!

Happy Birthday, Husband!

Today is my husband's 27th birthday. But he doesn't look a day older than 18. :)

And this is the face he would make at me if he heard me say that. But he knows it's true. Hehe.

(Yes, this is a sneak peek picture from our honeymoon - more to come, I promise!)

Happy Birthday, Husband! I love you!

The Ritz Carlton is Worth Every Penny

Before I start the wedding recaps, let me give you a little recap about the honeymoon. We got married in our hometown on Saturday, and stayed at the (almost) local Ritz Carlton. I had never stayed at a Ritz before, but had always said I would stay there on my wedding night (and every anniversary thereafter).

My husband (I love saying that) saved up points on his credit card to help us get a room there for that special night. We had an assist as well from some family friends who gave us a VERY generous gift card to the Ritz as a wedding present!

We arrived that night in our limo, with the bellhop there to greet us. I loved showing up in my wedding dress, and my groom in his tux. (We had thought about changing before we left. My advice? Don't do it! I loved feeling like a bride when I walked into that hotel!)

I knew the Ritz was beautiful. I had no idea how great their people were. We walked in, and immediately the guy at the front desk greeted us, saying "Good evening, Mr. & Mrs. ____!" I absolutely LOVED that they called us by our married names! He told us where our room was, gave us our keys, and offered us a champagne toast - which we gladly accepted! We were amazed - the whole check in process only took about five minutes. As my husband says, it felt like the whole place was waiting for us to get there.

Our room? Spectacular. But then again, the whole place was. Check out these photographs - it makes me want to go back!

My handsome husband. :)

This is the view from our room. AMAZING!

I know this post has been really picture-heavy, and you are all still waiting to hear details about the wedding, but I really wanted to share this experience with you.

Are you staying somewhere special for your wedding night?