It took my sister 10 years to finally get me to one of her favorite places on this Earth.
I had my reasons for never really making it here before now. Circumstances were right and once again, an incredible husband that takes care of things at home while I'm gone.
I flew into St. Marteen and from there take a little prop plane over to St. Barths. Char had always told me about the landing. It was really cool. You fly up over a mountain and basically do a little nose dive down on this little air strip. The runway ends directly into the ocean. It was so cool!
So this is me with my back pack, hat, and clothes on my back.
Dumb Delta didnt get my bag to me. We kept checking for about 4 days and then finally realized I probably was not going to get my bag. Without going into the long story. Delta never did recover my bag. I lost all my favorites but I wasnt going to let it ruin this dream vacation. Luckily, I had Charlene to at least have something to wear.
This was our little house and little car.
The view from the kitchen window. Thats the famous Eden Rock right in front of us.
Borrowed Chars bathing suit and went straight for a walk on the beach.
The water was certainly clear and very beautiful.
We walked down to one of Chars favorite restaurants, Andy's. Thats Andy in the picture with us. The sad news was that Andy's (and the rest of the island was closing the next day for the month) There is good news with that. The bad news for the night was Andys was not serving the normal menu. It was quite funny because they just kept bringing more and more food out. They were cleaning out their kitchen. All we could think about was Tom being there and how he would have been in heaven.
Good morning St. Barths
Fresh fruit off of the tree. Bread & Croissants from the bakery and orange drink. The food was amazing. So the first night, I still was asking Char what was so different about this island than others we had been to. I was already starting to realize this was a French island so therefore French food.
Each beach had a tile sign like this. I loved them and a great memory of each beach.
This was the beach right out in front of our house. This is also where the planes land and thats why the sign has a plane on it. We would take long walks up and down the beach. You had to yield for the planes as they literally took off over your head. That was pretty neat!
This is Eden Rock where all the movies stars come at Christmas.
So Beautiful
Dinner on our balcony tonight. The food is so fresh. I can tell with everything that I eat!
We stopped to by myself one very expensive bathing suit and cover up. (that was one of the reasons for never visiting before- bring your life savings-its expensive) Delta had to pick up that bill!
Saline beach. A short walk down this path and then over a sand dune...
to this view.
I dont think I have seen more beautiful beaches. Not even in Hawaii.
It is September here and that is a holiday month when everyone goes back to Paris or other parts of France. That means a couple different things for us. The most important is that we are on these beaches by ourselves and no one else in sight. I have never experienced this. We would spend the entire day here. Just my sister and I and this beautiful place. No interruptions except for a couple of goats that you could here up on the mountains.
It was so peaceful. I couldnt even stay focused on reading as I couldnt stop just looking at my surroundings.
Day 2 and I was beginning to understand what my sister had been talking about.
Meat & Potatoes
This was a first for Char. She had always heard to go there. It was down a long dark road by the old Saline fields with nothing around it. I wasnt too sure about it when we got out of the car.
This was one of the best meals I have ever had. The restaurant was open air and a wicked storm came through. Lightning was hitting very close. This storm took out our internet for the next couple of days.
I actually felt like I was in Africa this night. Not quite sure why but it just reminded me of something African. Some locals killed a poisonous centipede on the floor. Took them forever to actually kill it. It was kind of cool sitting outside in this crazy storm. We did get a little wet but the dinner was amazing!
Such a fun night!!!
We went home and watched some movies.
Yes, you could find me each morning in the bakery. Love my croissants.
This was the drive down to La Gouveneur beach.
All the French smoke and here is no different but they clean up after themselves unlike in America. You take a can to the beach with you for the cigarette butts and then you put the can back on your way out.
Another incredible beach and another peaceful day. The pictures dont show this too well but the sand was at a huge angle down to the water. The waves were really big also. Getting out of the water was interesting. You had to time it just right.
Your feet would just sink down in this soft sand. It made for quite a workout on all our walks we would take.
We did get rained on a little here but not too bad. We actually were doing really well with the storms. You can count on rain everyday and this was our first so far.
We went to Shell beach close to sunset. This is a small beach right in town.
The entire beach was nothing but shells. It was amazing! I guess thats why they call it shell beach.
Huge rocks on the one end of the beach. The beaches are all so different!
Sunset
This is Angel. She was a little baby last December when Char was there last. The owners of the house rescued her from some rocks she was stuck in. The poor little thing is blind but she has a great home now.
(I never came in contact with livestock just in case US customs asks)
The town of Gustavia.
Usually this bay is filled with mega yachts but not in September. There was only one there.
I was so happy to get a crepe.
We walked around downtown and looked at all the stores. Lucky for Tom most of them were closed. They are very high end stores anyway. Not like I would be shopping at them.
Look what was flying in the harbor!!
Flamands beach and yes as the sign shows. Lizards live here.
This was a pretty overcast day.
Beautiful beach but not like the others. Even though we were the only ones on the beach you could see civilization. I loved being at Saline and Gouverneur and feeling like we were literally on a deserted island.
The only graffiti I saw on the island. It is a very clean island.
Dinner at a very nice place at the harbor. There was one other table besides us. They were photographers doing a big shoot the next day. That was interesting hearing all of their scoop on certain Hollywood people.
French Island, the most expensive water here is the cheapest there.
We survived on frozen bottles of Evian.
This beach was more in the industrial part of a harbor and also a little fishing town. They count it as one of their beaches but not where we would go and hang out. Neat to see though.
Of course, above ground cemeteries.
Cheeseburger in Paradise, Jimmys Buffets place on the island.
Outdoors under the trees.
We just went to go and look at these beaches. The hotels are all closed up so no one around. Very Very expensive hotels. Could not ever imagine staying at them.
A small snorkeling beach although we were just taking a tour around the island.
We saved this beach for the last day. We were waiting on my running shoes to get to me because its a pretty serious hike down in to this beach. Takes an hour. Well, the shoes never came so we went with flip flops! Could not miss out on this beach. Char had talked about it forever and is her most favorite beach.
The views and things we saw along the way were incredible!
Yep, we even carried chairs with us. Hey, we were going to stay all day and wanted to be comfortable.
Right past this cave we had to go around to the other side of the mountain. It got very windy and we knew to sacrifice the chairs if we had to. We were up very high and at the edge sometimes even though the pictures do not show it.
Lots of turtles
My sister was so nervous with me sitting here but I wanted a picture. One of the most amazing walks I have ever been on. Words can not explain what I had been experiencing all this week.
Around the corner and it was paradise. There was 2 boats in the cove but they eventually left. Other than that it was just us. So amazing.
On the other side of these rocks is where there is great snorkeling. We started out and didnt have any flippers so we were really swimming on our own. Char was a little nervous with the waves and the rocks. We were getting a little tired but the fish were so amazing!! Then I look over and Charlene is standing. We literally thought we were in deep water because when we swam out it was deep. It was so shallow we could stand and not only stand, we could just look down in the water and see fish everywhere. I really could not believe how amazing this day had been from the very beginning. If the kids could have been here right then. It was such a great experience. Felt like we were the only ones on the entire island. You could see the top of one house on the back mountain. That would belong to Harrison Ford. They didnt invite us for lunch.
Such an incredible day that literally Char and I lost track of time and realized the sun was setting. There would be no way that we would be able to hike out in the dark. We gathered our stuff and headed out quickly. These were the rocks we climbed up.
A pizza restaurant for our last night. We met some local people and had a very fun night.
Spent the last morning at Eden Rock as I would have to go catch my plane. I wasnt going to waste one moment that I had.
Took off straight towards the beach I had just been walking on.
I really have never experienced a week on an island like this. I think that you really have to experience it for yourself. Char would tell me and I just kept thinking yes, just like a million other islands and they dont cost as much. I eat every word I ever said about St. Barths. As far as island vacations go, this is the best ever. I am positive that being there in September is something special. I loved being the only ones on the beaches. Amazing vacation! I can tell you that you can do it with one swimsuit and cover up! Who needs the big suit case of clothes that I had packed?
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