Weekend Recap AND St. Lucia Day ONE!

Hi hi!! So, the weekend was weird b/c my days are all still messed up. It's kinda hilarious actually. Friday night, slept. A lot. Saturday, was a pretty pathetic couch potato...SYTYCD, Here Come the Newlyweds (boo for the Cox's going home), Real World-Road Rules finale, The Soup,...yeah. I'm so cool. Oh, and I did get off my rear long enough to unpack! Eric, his brother and I went to see The Hangover on Saturday night. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a movie in awhile..but warning.. it's super inappropriate. If you're offended by the f bomb, I'd advise against spending 8.50 to see it... Covering all our bases on foods we missed while gone, finished the night with Braums and headed home. This morning, we went through all our photos and exchanged! You know what that means....THEY'RE GETTING POSTED PRONTO!!!

To kick off this hoorah, just gonna say... I'm sorry b/c it's going to be ridiculous...hahaha. :) I opted to take my new blog friend, Megan's, approach by going vacation day by day in posting! I hope you had a great weekend, everyone! Here's our trip... from Miami (Wed the 3rd) through the end of Friday (the 5th). Since Friday was the first full day, I'm considering this all day one. 

Lunch at our hotel in Miami...rested and ready for St. Lucia! (thank you camera self timer.. It got used...A LOT).

Our first room! Coco Palm! Very cute little boutique hotel in Rodney Bay (the busiest part of the island). Super affordable and great staff!!
Arrived. Set bags down. Went to hotel restaurant. Ordered beverages. We had our priorities, people.. haha! (you can guess which one is mine)
The local beer-Pitons!
Coco Palm wasn't right on the beach, but wasn't far at all!
A little crooked, but not too bad for the self timer, huh?!
Where would you like to sit? Right in front of the restaurant/bar? Yeah. That works. haha!
Hung the entire day at the beach, relaxed, bought jewelry from a local guy, headed back to the hotel for the Friday night Jump Up (the local party-fish fry in town!)
The bar and restaurant at our hotel. Super cute. Eric's sitting in center in green shirt (aka in front of the bball game) ;)
If Eric turned over his left shoulder in previous pic, this is what he would have seen!
Jump Up! Locals come out and bbq fish, chicken, and every kind of food you'd want! We bought local beers from a guy who had a "bar" (cart) set up and was selling them to buy football uniforms for his kids school. Super cute. (they have a really good school system there.. will comment on this later).
Eric red snapper. I think it was dead. Hopefully. I had chicken. ;)

People made things out of the palm trees-including angel fish! Cute, right?
Jump Up was really rolling as we were leaving to head back to Coco Palm! :) They had a stage, reggae music blasting, etc. We met up with my friend from law school and his wife for a night walk on the beach before heading home. :) 
I'll fill you in more later, but one thing I was absolutely astounded by is how fabulous the people are! We never felt like "bothersome tourists." As a cab driver told us, children are taught in schools to smile and wave at tourists...and have full understanding about the income they bring to the island nation. I never once felt unsafe. Locals pass each other and wave, comment about each other's lives, honk to say hello, etc...so great! Speaking of cab drivers, it's a top position on the island and is highly respected...costing over $20,000 USD to just BECOME a driver and that doesn't include your car. The drivers are all very proud of their cars...and most are very nice SUVs. More about all of this later so I don't totally bore everyone any more than I already have..haha!

Hope you had a great weekend! I'm sad to be back in a way...but so glad to have had the experience! I can't wait to go back to the Caribbean, but I bet I'll be hard pressed to find anywhere I love as much as St. Lucia...or as much as this trip. :)