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The view from my sunbed

I am back from my girls week away and full from all the laughter and fun we all had together.  St. Lucia is wonderful.  Lush and tropical (no rain though for 2 months).  The people are lovely and our side of the island was unspoiled by large hotels and boutique shopping.

Beach at high tide

Travelling with 5 girls aged 22 - 26 was an adventure.  We all stayed together during the day, sunning and swimming and sightseeing.  We would then dress and meet for drinks in the lobby before dinner, dine together, attend the resort entertainment and dance, then leave the girls to do their thing later in the evening.  Of course you can't travel with 5 gorgeous girls and not have drama.  There were always stories over breakfast of the events at the disco or bar or pool the night before.

We had lots of Champagne celebrations

.... and had to go to recovery mode on occasion

It was wonderful to get to know my son's future sisters in law better, and their best friend and the 2 other mothers.  The girls are all like sisters and it was just joyful and heart warming to sit back and watch them as young adults. What I most enjoyed was that they don't sit back and wait for the fun to happen.  They were always the first on the dance floor and as the resort staff kept saying "these are the girls that get the party started".  And they were gracious and inclusive- getting everyone involved.

This is my girl Ky (shorty as the gorgeous tall St. Lucian women called her) at the Grand Barbecue celebration

The volcano

We had drinks poolside at the Hummingbird Resort with the Grande Pitons in the background...Heaven

This is the ship from Pirates of the Caribbean

We went Whale watching but only saw dolphin, but they were amazing....

The final night...trying to teach us how to shake it like the Caribs.

All in all, it was fabulous.  With one exception.  We stayed at the Coconut Bay Resort.  The resort itself was great, the food good and atmosphere vibrant, however they had a ridiculous rule that you could have no more than 6 people at a table at the restaurants.  That meant we were not allowed to dine together.  I took particular exception to this as it is my favourite part of the whole holiday.  We always get dressed up and make an event of it.  The first night they wouldn't consider letting us eat together no matter how we tried to convince them.  The whole dining room quietly watched us argue and plead with them.  They had no good reason, other than it was a "rule" and they didn't want large tables messing up the dining room.

  Being the rebels we are, we "shockingly" pushed our tables together causing the manager and hostess to ignore us for the rest of the week, but one waitress (thanks Aline) came to serve us and welcomed us greatly and we were able to share our first meal together and celebrate.  I had further discussions with the manager and they refused to budge on the policy, however a second manager made "special" arrangements for us for one of the girls birthday dinner and we were "allowed" to sit together. However, we just pushed the tables together every night.  I think the managers hated us and the staff secretly applauded us. 

 One night they closed one of the restaraunts causing a lot of people to have nowhere to dine except the buffet.  We were told it was closed for a private function.  When we walked by we saw a breach of procotcol......horrors a table for 12.  I later found out it was the owner of the hotel and his guests......interesting that he wanted to dine with his entire party of guests.  Of course I took photos for Trip Advisor to prove how ridiculous the whole rule was.  My principle is that families and friends reconnect on a holiday and part of the whole festive and wonderful part of a vacation is being together.  I don't go out to eat to not be allowed to sit with my family or group.

Unspoiled beauty

The St. Lucians are gracious and interesting and colorful hosts.  I can't think of a more beautiful island.  And I can't be more fullfilled and happy to have had the opportunity to spend this wonderful week with such good people with so much laughter and memories.