A couple of weeks in St Lucia...

I'm back...well I have been for a week, but you know what the first week back at work from vacation is like :) Make it a short week and it's both good and bad...

Anyhoo we got back from our vacation to St Lucia on June 29th, and then enjoyed a few BBQ's on the Canada Day long weekend - great way to come home!

Our first week in St Lucia was cloudy and rainy...it bummed us out quite a bit and we seriously considered coming home a week early...but an extra week in St Lucia is better than a week doing stay-cation at home chores anyday, so we stuck to our original plan. Good thing we did as the sun came out and it gave us a chance to re-do everything we did under cloud/rain the first week!
 

Our backyard for the first week - we shared a 3 BR villa with friends and their 1.5 year old daughter, it was great! Usually went to the "big" pool but nice to look at this view over breakfast.

A small bay in the Atlantic on our resort the first week

View from a hike (nature walk) near our first villa

The famous pitons...in the clouds the first week...and the same view in the sun below (SOOO much better the 2nd week!)

It poured rain the first time we went...we tried to make the most of it by doing some snorkeling, but generally we were dying for some sun! The second time we went we climbed the "Gros Piton" - well they only let me go halfway (I guess they don't want people having babies at the top of the hike) but the Mr went up the full way.

We also went to Pigeon Island which is a beautiful national park with a couple of small but gorgeous beaches, and a couple of mini-hikes.

 We went back to this beach on our last day - it's small but so quiet, and on the caribbean side so the water is super refreshing!

 The right side is the Caribbean, and the left is the Atlantic

 

 A view of the "hike" / nature walk on pigeon island

If you're thinking of St Lucia as a destination I would say go if you're a beach person, but a week is likely enough. We thought there would be more to do, and more accessible things to do on our own as opposed to excursions, but we still found some great places to explore. We didn't do the all inclusive as that's not really our thing, but instead we stayed in a couple of villas which are more our style. We did their weekly "jump up" which is a big street party on Friday night - lots of GREAT street food and fun to go for a few hours.

Now we're back to the grind, but it's great to be back for the heart of the summer!