Honeymooon

We had a wonderful time on our honeymoon. For those that are wondering, "where did you go?", we went to the Sandpiper Village in St. Lucie, Florida, one of 80 Club Med locations around the world. We could not have asked for a better place to spend our first vacation together. This location is designed around sports activities and fun for the entire family. For more details about the location, check out this link:

Club Med, Sandpiper

While we were there, we purchased a camera and have returned with a nice array of photos for posterity. Here are a couple of slideshows from our trip.







Unfortunately, the pictures don't say too much about the time we had, as they are just still life, so let me take a moment (or likely longer) to elaborate on the fun that we had in a G rated fashion. We'll keep the XXX rated parts of the trip to ourselves (relax Beagle & Ray).

The fun started on Sunday morning. We arrived to the resort much before check-in, but it wasn't a problem. They were wonderful in accommodating us early. We had lunch & wondered around the resort a bit. They were kind enough to give us a private guided tour later. After dinner we found ourselves getting some drinks and having a grand time.

Let me stray for a moment and tell you about the spreads that they put out for every meal. It was incredible. Every meal had finger foods, an array of breads, hot & cold food selections, decadent desserts and it all was nothing short of gourmet. I had a hard time getting myself to stop eating before I felt like I was going to burst. Everything was laid out in a buffet of all you can eat. I can't stress to you enough how good the food was at this place.

Ok, enough about the food for now. On Monday, we felt the compulsion to visit a bank. I can't begin wonder why. Everyone was so gracious in their gift giving. We cried in amazement and frustration a couple times because of the amounts that some friends & family were giving to us. So, we had to find a place to deposit the gifts. On our ride in to the village from the airport, Angel noticed a bank branch that wasn't too far, so we decided to take a walk to it. Well, as you all know, a couple of minutes in a vehicle is in stark contrast to the time required on foot. This "short" distance was actually more like 4 or 5 miles down the road. Also, while we were out, Angel wanted to get a haircut and I wanted to buy a camera. Just so happened that across the street from the bank was a mall. We wandered about a bit, and then got to business. Angel got her hair cut, I found & bought a camera and returned to the village. After it was all said & done, we had spent 6 hours away from the village and 3 of it was spent getting there and back. Needless to say, we enjoyed our dinner and had a few stiff drinks to round out the night.

Oh, about the alcohol. It was all included in the cost of the stay. That being said, you would expect that a good amount would be dropped on tipping. Well, you would be wrong. Tipping was greatly discouraged and not expected. Well, it was a good thing too, we started drinking most days between 10:30 and 11:30 and usually didn't stop (aside from the time required for participating in activities) until 11 or 12 at night. Thankfully, neither one of us were drinking so quickly or heavily that we were smashed in the middle of the afternoon. I think I only felt tipsy twice the entire week. I'm not sure that Angel let herself get to that point even once. It was a good time.

So, on Tuesday, we went sailing. Yes, in a small 4 seater catamaran style boat that didn't have a motor and completely relied on wind power to move on the water. It was a good time. Angel enjoyed it, especially as it was her first time sailing. I had to coax her to steer the boat, but she eventually did & did well (thankfully we didn't have any more wind, else, we may have flipped when she turned without warning me). Also, while we were on the water, we encountered a fish that jumped. It was a cool site. That afternoon, we also hit the archery range. They had a nice array of bows & target distances. I was amazed at how well Angel did at the range (aside from the bruise she walked away with on her bow forearm).

Wednesday we took things easy. We wanted to go water skiing but the boats were down for preventative maintenance as they are on every Wednesday. So, we decided to hit the boccie court. We didn't know it at the time, but we were playing by the wrong rules. Oh well, we had fun doing it anyway. Later that night, we caught a show of the GO's (Gracious Organizers or Employees) performing on the Trapeze. Watching them do it was a wonderful way to encourage others to come by to try it. They made it look so easy & graceful. As we would later find out, neither comes quickly. Here is a complied video of what they were doing:



On Thursday neither of us woke up with the motivation to go water skiing as we had planned. We spent most of the morning in bed watching TV. However, Thursday afternoon, we did venture down to the Trapeze to have a swing or two. As most of you know, Angel has a huge fear of heights. The fact that she even did this was amazing and then I got her to try it twice. Check out the video. For some reason, I wasn't able to attach that video too. If you would like to watch, hit the link.

So after we flew for a little bit, we were just waiting for dinner time to come around. While we were chilling at the bar killing time, some classic cars were rolled in. Pictures of these cars can be found in the picture album designated Specials. After checking out the cars, it was time to have dinner. On this night, there was a special plated dinner prepared that was accompanied by entertainment. The entertainment for the night was the Trapeze crew performing solo acts and the dinner consisted of 6 gourmet courses. I'm glad each course was small, I was worried that I wouldn't make it all the way thru. However, neither one of us had dessert. Also, the finally of the entertainment got rained out. The major part of the show we did catch follows here:



Friday we wanted to go water skiing, unfortunately, the Florida Health Department had something else to say about this. Apparently there were high levels of some bacterial fecal matter that is monitored in the river. This was as result of the heavy rains earlier in the week that ran off into the river. Therefore, Club Med closed all of their water activities until the Health Dept gives them the OK to reopen. Unfortunately, this didn't happen while we were there. We missed our opportunity to ski. So, instead we went swimming in the main pool. While we were in the pool, we assisted in removing a nice sized blue crab from the pool. It had to have been around the size of my fist or larger (not counting the legs). After the pool, we spent more time at the bar and revisited the Trapeze. I was told that I might get caught if I was able to get my timing down better. Unfortunately this didn't happen, though I did improve.

Saturday was our last full day in the resort, so we had some catch up to do. I coaxed Angel into agreeing to play the 9 Hole Par 3 golf course. I reminded her that it was included and she couldn't do anymore damage to the place than the little kids would. Amazingly she enjoyed herself for how adamant she was about not doing it previously. She also did quite well. There were at least a couple of holes that she did better than I did and I had done this a time or two before. :) After golfing, I had to try out the skate park. This is another video moment that I will have to share. I completely messed up a spine transfer. I didn't get hurt, but I did get yelled at because my helmet came off. Once the helmet was put on properly we didn't get any additional photographic or video evidence of my antics. It was a good time, but 15 minutes was more than enough for me.



The one thing that I didn't mention was the daily rain that came thru. You could almost set a clock to it. However, a couple of days we got more than just one sprinkling. But the rain never lasted too long. May be 10 minutes at the longest and that might be exaggerating. It would be gone just as quick as it showed up. When people would discover that we were on our honeymoon they would mention that they hope the rain stays away. We just shrugged... all the more reason to head back to the room.. :) (Beagle & Ray.. had to get one in there somewhere).

So, there are the highlights of our trip. Obviously there are somethings that I'm leaving out, not intentionally, but I think I've written enough. The other details are minor anyway. The important thing to know is that we had fun & couldn't have had a better time. We didn't have one of those disastrous honeymoons that you hate to hear about, I don't think we fought a single time. It was a beautiful location for a beautiful time and it was all worth it.