Random Honeymoon

Now that all of our pictures are nicely organized in the new iPhoto I can't help but peek back in time a bit. Just a little over a year ago, Nate and I were on our honeymoon experiencing paradise on earth: Ti Kaye Village on the Caribbean isle of St. Lucia. We decided to splurge on our first real vacation together and it's highly unlikely that we will be able to afford a trip like this again, but it was worth every dime.

33 personal cottages on a hillside, on a cliff like this:


With a secluded little porch, hammock and all:Ah yes, and our own private plunge pool and outdoor shower overlooking the ocean. Nate was in heaven can you tell?

Yep, pretty much paradise:In all of the hundreds of pictures we took, one thing stands out to me right now: our honeymoon was full of randomness! Good randomness, but still quite interesting occurrences that only we could appreciate [well, hopefully you readers, too!] I could show you a ton of 'picture perfect' photos or I could show you the random funny ones, and I choose option B.

Exhibit #1: Our first SCUBA experience. We are not certified divers, but the resort offered an introductory class [that landed us diving in 40 foot waters within an hour]. Incredibly scary and exhilarating at the same time. Nate had a minor panic attack at first but then sucked it up and enjoyed the ride:) Me? I apparently forgot how to fake smile underwater. These photos crack me up because I look completely ticked since I didn't even bother trying to smile---which is not like me.


And Nate re-discovered his inner confidence on this one:Exhibit #2: I grew a unicorn horn. No, seriously, something really weird happened to my forehead. In hindsight, it probably had something to do with the sun. But one morning I woke up to a new hump on my head and I nearly lost it---assuming that I was dying, and my brain might be swelling. Normally my forehead goes straight down without a curve. But take a look at this:

Pictures from that day are hilarious because you can see the shadows from my horn. You see the little bump there? FREAK!
Exhibit #3: We attended a wedding on the beach for some Italian strangers turned friends. This is Stephano and his new wife. Stephano and Nate immediately became best of buddies, almost to a point where I was worried my new husband would run off to Italy to be with Stephano for life.
He barely spoke any English at all, but my goodness he tried. We met him on a boat excursion one day and figured out pretty quickly that he was a character. Out of control, full of energy, and Italian. Then one day at the pool he walks up to us and says in his broken English, "I....marry.....today. You....come." Meaning he was getting married on the beach that night! Squeeeeee! A wedding!!!

So yes, we attended along with 4 other randoms at our resort [kind of made me sad for them, since they didn't have any family there]. Here is our new friends with the minister and the Italian translator:)
And the after-party on the beach. What a crew, huh? TOTALLY random.
The 'reception' involved coolers of beer, Pringles, and a tiny little cake. It was absolutely fabulous and probably the most fun we had during the whole trip. I don't know why but I love this picture full of strangers having fun in St. Lucia:
The SCUBA instructors at the resort were awesome and quite entertaining. Nate bonded with those boys, too, and together they made a gay pyramid with the groom. Sheer happiness, I tell you:

Exhibit #4: We coaxed one of the resort staff to give us a 'wine tasting' in their awesome cellar. It was incredibly under priced considering that he poured us FULL GLASSES of the wines. I think I lost count at 8 different kinds of wine, including some bottles of expensive stuff he probably shouldn't have opened for us:) Random but awesome.
Exhibit #5: I fell asleep on our hammock after a long day in the sun. No biggie, right? Nate took this picture because if you look closely you'll see that my eyes are partially open. GROSS!

Exhibit #6: The last night involved going into town for a city fish fry. We made friends with some other honeymooners [kind of random when a honeymoon should be all about the newlyweds, right?]. Me and this girl Elizabeth had a strange desire to karaoke to "Friends in Low Places" by Garth. So here is one of the locals [who was missing an eye!] jamming out to American country music. What a show boater and completely random.

Exhibit #7: The van ride back to the airport might have been one of the worst experiences in my life. I wanted to die at that moment because I was so car sick. They drive on the left side of the road, zooming passed goats tied to ropes, up hills, twisting and turning around the little island until your stomach says "ENOUGH!". I almost died, true story.
This picture is random because this is the view of the famous Piton mountains from our van window. My new husband decided to take some pictures while his ghost-white wife clung to her very life in the front seat. Although I'm an advocate for photography this was too much.

And so, my friends, the lesson is this: you can take the newlyweds to paradise but you can't leave behind the everyday randomness that is their life. Sigh, I want to go back right now:)

13 comments:

  1. ••••Then one day at the pool he walks up to us and says in his broken English, "I....marry.....today. You....come."••••

    I can totally hear this guy's accent in my head. That is so cute. How fun is that!

    Great pics! Sounds like you guys had a great honeymoon. I can't wait until we go on ours!!!

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  2. Your honeymoon was amazing!!! I've always wanted to stay somewhere with our own personal pool and hammock... I love hammocks. When I was growing up I wanted to get rid of my bed and permanently sleep in a hammock. My parents said no :(

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  3. Cute post!

    Your experience was much different than ours. At the time and even now, Jim and I acknowledge the fact that we were so incredibly anti-social on our honeymoon. We were surrounded by "honeymooners" yet we stuck only to each other. It's not we're like this in real life...so I really can't explain why.

    Looks like you guys had a fab time!

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  4. such a cute post! darin and i completely did random things on our honeymoon- met other random honeymooners and had a bazillion and a half laughs- it was such an awesome time!

    i loooooove your story about the wedding! how cute!

    unicorn head? you are too funny! i totally see it though and i would have been the same way- instant thought of "i am dying"- i am such a hypochondriac, just ask the hubby!

    that resort looks fabulous! if we ever go there i will have to ask you were you stayed- darin would be in heaven!

    oh! thank you soo much for the kind comments on my blog- they are very very much appreciated! you were soo not on your soap box- i totally need those kinds of comments! :0)

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  5. You have no idea how much I enjoyed this post! From the pissed off scuba posts to the unicorn forehead, from the gay period to the "true story!"

    I so needed this!

    Glad you had such a fantastic trip, meeting cool people!

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  6. Hubby and I watched an "elopement" wedding on our honeymoon also!

    That dress you wore to the wedding is drool worthy. Love love love it.

    The picture of you snorkling couldn't be funnier. Hopefully that one has a place of honor in your scrapbook.

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  7. What a fun post! We have a punch of pissed off scuba pictures too. I'm convinced the key is to wave at the camera so at least you look inviting. : )

    I think I'll have to steal your idea and do a post like this so that we can remember all the random stories about our trip. Tomorrow will be one year since we left for our HM so we've been reminiscing a lot about our trip. DH remembered a bunch of stories I didn't so I need to write them down before we forget!

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  8. that looks like it was so much fun! Kind of makes me jealous.

    I love the Italian wedding pictures. That is so random and funny...and a great story to tell for the rest of your life!

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  9. What wonderful pictures! It looks like you guys had an amazing honeymoon! Thanks for sharing these pics! I wish I could post some of my honeymoon pics on my blog, but it really was not that awesome. Durn all-inclusive spot in Mexico was AWFUL! Speaking of which, I think hubs owes me another honeymoon!! :)

    Just Another Day...

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  10. Awww, that looks like such an awesome trip! I can only hope our honeymoon will be full of as much fun randomness! That resort with the cottages looks amazing. LOVE the pissed off scuba photos.

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  11. I love this post. And that picture of Nate in the pool made me laugh out loud.

    I remember reading about Ti Kaye on the Knot when trying to decide on a honeymoon locale. It looks heavenly!

    Thanks for sharing some honeymoon pics!

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  12. That same EXACT thing happened to my forehead when we vacationed in Florida one year!! I think it was from the sun too! CRAZY!! I wsa totally freaked out!!

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  13. Hi Julia - I randomly came across your blog while reading some other blog (isn't that how it always happenends? and then you end up with so many blogs that you have to read?) anyway, I was reading through some of your older posts and I have to comment because:

    1 - I live in St. Louis and noticed that you went to school here. I also came to stl to go to school and ended up staying after graduation.
    2 - I got married the day before you did, on May 26, 2007
    3 - We also went to Ti Kaye for our honeymoon and if you went the week after your wedding, we were probably there at the same time. Kinda crazy considering how small the place is!

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