Tyson and I spent a wonderful week in beautiful St. Lucia at Sandals Regency La Toc Resort & Spa for our honeymoon. The island is truly one of the prettiest places I've ever been.
We took a very long five hour flight from Atlanta to the Hewanorra International Airport in Vieux Fort, St. Lucia. From there, it was about an hour's bus ride north to the city of Castries where our resort was. As beautiful as the vegetation of the island is, I have to say, the bus ride to the hotel was humbling. Right in the middle of paradise was poverty at some of its worst. It was shocking to me to see the condition that some of the citizens there lived in. Flimsy aluminum panel and tarped-up shacks that were about the same size as my walk-in closet in my apartment (that I am constantly complaining is too small) were all that some people had to call home. The thin, ill-postured bodies of people who did not eat regularly like they should. People who walked up steep, mountainous roads in blazing heat and humidity to get to wherever they were going because they didn't have cars to take them there. All of it was so hard to watch from the comfort of my air-conditioned seat in the clean 15-passenger van that was taking us to such a luxurious resort. It's no wonder the world has such a negative view of Americans. Even the people we consider the poorest in our nation have infinitely more (in both possessions and opportunities) than some St. Lucians do. Before we had left to go to St. Lucia, I was selfishly wondering when our wedding pictures might be posted, since our photographer was leaving for a mission trip in Haiti the same week we would be on our honeymoon. I knew that trip would probably set the expected time back a little, and me and my spoiled American attitude were disappointed that the wait might be longer. But after seeing the conditions of that island, I had to chastise myself pretty severely. While I was enjoying myself on vacation, our photographer was building homes and helping people in a country just as impoverished as this one. He was helping people and making a difference, rather than just witnessing them as I was that day. I felt ashamed.
Sorry to go off on that tangent, but the impact that revelation had on me was pretty great. I have so much respect for people like Pat, our photographer, that take time out of their own lives to care about other people...complete strangers in most cases. Tyson and I would really like to get involved in some charity work after having that experience.
Once we arrived at the resort and got all checked in and saw all that there was to do, we immediately.....took a nap. We were exhausted. The past few weeks of our life have been so hectic that we were worn out. We did finally pull ourselves up to have dinner and do some site-seeing around the resort before calling it a night though.
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| The view from our room |
We had a great week there. We swam in the pools, laid out in the sun, took an aqua bike out onto the ocean, played golf, got a couple's massage, shopped downtown in the local market, and ate and ate and ate...and drank and drank and drank. And we slept A LOT. There really is no excuse for us to be tired for like, the next month.
We got back Sunday night (much later than expected because the Atlanta airport is and always will be the most incompetent airport in the world, in my book anyway) and spent Monday putting our life back in order. Kind of. We did laundry, put luggage away, went grocery shopping, and started on our massive pile of thank you notes. (Sidenote, if you are expecting a thank you note from us, bear with us - Tyson is a slow writer and I stress over exactly the right thing to say, and that doesn't make for a very quick process.... I promise you'll get them in the next month...or two... just kidding. I think.)
So now things are finally starting to quiet down and we can get back to things like, I don't know, normality. We are talking about going on dates again (haven't been able to nail out a time/day just yet, but I feel confident we can come to an agreement in this lifetime), and starting to look for a house (grown-up stuff!!). The honeymoon is, most definitely, over, but our life together has finally just begun! :)
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