Part 1: Honeymoon to St. Lucia

Todd & I left for our honeymoon bright and early on Monday, August 22, two days after we got married. Our flight left Columbus at 7:15 AM and after a brief layover in Atlanta, we arrived in St. Lucia around 3:00 PM. I would say 95% of the people on our flight from Atlanta to St. Lucia were honeymooners and everyone was either going to Sandals Grande St. Lucian or Sandals La Toc. After an 1.5 hour shuttle ride to the Grande, we were finally able to relax and begin our honeymoon. We checked into our room which was amazing! We were staying in the Honeymoon Lagoon Swim-Up Room, which was a concierge level room. This means we had a fully stocked bar, 24 hour room-service, and someone to take care of all of our dinner reservations and tour excursions. By the time we got settled in on Monday evening, we were starving so headed to the beach BBQ. After dinner, we grabbed a drink and made it an early night.

We actually ran into Derek & Emily (Derek was one of our groomsmen) on their way home to San Fran at the Columbus airport on Monday morning

Champagne and cheese & cracker tray awaiting us in our room

Todd & I at the beach BBQ

The resort was absolutely gorgeous and on our first full day there, I was excited to roam around, check it all out, and relax by the pool.

Beautiful view

Main pool and swim-up pool bar

Another view of the main pool

Literally 20 steps from the main pool was the beach

Todd on our patio about to head into the lagoon pool

View of main pool from the concierge lounge

View of the lagoon pool from our patio

Our building

Hanging out at the beach on our first full day in St. Lucia

Enjoying pizza and a milkshake on our patio

Todd enjoying a local beer, Piton

While sitting by the pool, we were invited to a special dinner on the beach that evening called Thrill on the Grill, which was put on by the head chefs. There were about 20 couples and we enjoyed our best meal of the whole week: lobster, scallops, shrimp, and steak. We were right on the beach with a bonfire and ended the evening with fireworks and by lighting paper lanterns and watching them float up into the sky.

Todd & I at Thrill on the Grill

Lobster, scallops, shrimp, and steak....Todd might have had 2 lobsters

On Wednesday, we again just soaked up the sun and layed by the pool. This was exactly what we intended to do most days on our honeymoon, we were defintely taking advantage of relaxing and enjoying our first week of married life. We usually started at the main pool in the morning and early afternoon and then would hang out on our patio for a bit to get out of the sun before spending the rest of the afternoon at our lagoon pool. It was heaven.

Eating lunch at Barefoot on the Beach

Our view from lunch

The view looking the other direction

Floating in the pool

Taking a break from the sun and hanging out under the umbrella

Watching the sunset

There were 2 other Sandals resorts on St. Lucia besides the Grande and we were able to go to the other resorts to eat and hang out at their pool and beach. On Wednesday evening, we took the shuttle over to Sandals Halcyon for dinner at The Pier. The restaurant was great but the resort was really quiet and small. Unfortunately, we missed the early shuttle back to our resort and had to wait another 1.5 hour to get back so we grabbed a few drinks while we waited.

The Pier

Another view

Loved all the tropical drinks

Thursday was a our big excursion day as we did a ziplining tour through the rainforest. Like everything, it was about an hour drive to our adventure and after a quick tutorial on how to zipline, we were ready to go! We had 12 zips with the fastest one going 60 mph and the highest one being 150 feet. I had gone ziplining once a couple years ago in Ohio for Todd's birthday so I knew what it was going to be like but I was still nervous on our first zip. After that though, I was excited and had a blast! It was definitely worth doing.

Arriving at Tree Top Adventure

Todd & I suited up, hairnets and all

My first zip

Todd took pictures as he was going across....this zip we crossed over a river

Todd coming across on one of the last zips

Afterwards, we enjoyed a burger with banana ketchup....weird but good

Super sweaty in the love shack

Our tour guide stopped at a gorgeous view

Breathtaking view

So pretty

Our tour guide, Annie, with a bottle of local spiced rum

This stuff was really strong! Todd obviously had to have a second shot

We had dinner Thursday night at Toscanini's, the Italian restaurant at our resort

The food was great and the company was even better

Stay tuned for Part 2....