I have been looking at Mrs Toucans honeymoon pictures and swooning over all the fun they must have had. And then I remembered I never did a post about our honeymoon!!! How could I forget?!?! So first let me say I love it when I have Mr Butterscotch all to my self. I think I had this smile on my face almost the whole honeymoon (me at dinner our first night).
Our honeymoon was all about us relaxing together doing whatever we wanted! It was the best week ever! When we originally talked about our honeymoon we really had a lot of great ideas of where we wanted to go. But in the end we decided to go the the US Virgin Islands. Mostly because it was a place neither of us had been and because it sounded romantic. St. Thomas seemed to have the most to offer, we figured we would stay there and island hop as much as we could.
We did have some concerns since the week before we planned on arriving hurricane Dean had just made a mess of surrounding islands. Luckily Dean passed over the Virgin Islands. We booked our tickets and hotel through expedia. Overall it was all great, the down side is they switched our flights around so rather than going from Seattle, Atlanta, Virgin Islands they added Puerto Rico between Atlanta and the Virgin Islands. We were suppose to be on a large plane but with the switch we ended up on a 9 seater plane. Holy Moly!!! They asked us how much we weighted and weighed our luggage. Gosh I hope nobody else fibbed about their weight like i did.
We landed safely (phew)! Off to our amazing hotel. The Frenchman's Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort was a on top of a cliff looking out onto the ocean.
Basically there was no bad view around the entire hotel! The only down side of our hotel (and really all the hotels on the island) you have to take a taxi to get into the "city". The city isn't really a city but it more of a play full of yummy restaurants and shops. But the Safari bus or regular taxi cars are very reasonably priced.
Once in downtown you can spend the afternoon wandering in and out of the shops. Their were about 5 or six blocks jammed packed with shops along the narrow streets. one thing St. Thomas is known for besides their rum is their jewelry. They have a ton of jewelry shops.
They also have an small flee market that you can get your hair braided or buy local hand made goods.
Their are a few ways other than to get around St. Thomas.
You can rent a car. Personally I am not a good driver in other counties. And the Virgin Islands would be no expectation. They drive on the left side! Our taxi drivers whipped around the corners with no problems. Unless you count that we almost got into an accident just about very ride. Leave the driving to the locals.
A water taxi and ferry if you want to see the island from a different point of view. The water taxi is mostly to get you from one side of the island or over to the bay. The ferry is the most cost effective way to island hop. And of course you can always walk! If you choose to walk make sure you have a destination in mind. Most of this island is full of hills and has limited sidewalks. We also read a few warning to beware of the beaches since some tourist stick out like a sore thumb and can easily be take advantage of.
We were luckily our hotel also included a private beach.
You have to be prepared to share the beach and other areas around the resort with these fun creatures.
Yep iguanas are everywhere around the island. When you least expect! Always look where you are going especially at night. One of the hotel staff told us if we snapped our fingers at them they would move. It worked, but they would come right back, often times not waiting for you to pass by.
Each night we went back to our hotel rum bar. We were able to look out onto the bay from there. We had our own private balcony in our room too but the hotel had steel drums each night for the guests to enjoy. Check out this evening view!
Up next we island hop. The Butterscotch's visit Tortolla and St. Croix.
