Honeymoon - Day 1 "The Arrival"

Today we left for our honeymoon - destination St. Lucia. We only had 3 hours of sleep the night before, so our 6AM airport arrival time was not very fun. The night before we stayed at the Fairfield Inn and Suites near the Airport. Our wake-up call was at 5:30 AM and then we checked in with Delta Airlines at 6:15AM. Breakfast (our first as Mr. and Mrs.) consisted of Burger King (French Toast Sticks - yum!) at the airport which we scarfed down. Once boarding the plane we took our first class seats to Atlanta for part one of our trip. Once in Atlanta we found our next gate headed towards St. Lucia. Knowing that the gates always change around we searched the arrivals screen and went to the gate it told us. After arriving at our gate John became parched and went to get a drink. When arriving back with his drink he said the gates had changed and unless we wanted to go to Brazil we needed to move. Once arriving to our correct gate we called our families and let them know we had made it to Atlanta safely. At our gate there were a ton of other couples; 90% which were married the night before. We were called to board and took our first class seats once again. This time behind us was a grumpy old man - hence we nicknamed him Grump. We were offered mimosas in our seats and took them with pleasure. The movie showing on the plane was "Premonition" staring Sandra Bullock.

3:30PM After arriving to St. Lucia we departed the plane and walked onto the outdoor airport towards the immigration line. We turned in our immigration papers and headed towards grabbing our luggage. We took our luggage and then went to the customs place and then some man grabbed our luggage and put it on his little dolly. We ran after him and he took it to a Sandals shuttle bus as he said, "One of you go stand in line, one of you stay with the luggage, and a tip for me.". Needless to say we weren't happy to give the bag thief a tip. John stood with the baggage and I went to check in at the resort desk. I checked in and came back with tags for our Sandals luggage. Our luggage was then put onto a shuttle - the same one we were to board and we left the airport with 3 other couples. One couple was from Gainesville,FL (Hannah and ??) and another was from Grenada, Miss. (Hope and Steve - they got married at the resort). The other couple was from Mississippi, too - maybe. The taxi/shuttle ride was EXTREMELY bumpy and on the opposite side on the road. The driver gave us a little history and information about the island - he used to be on the police force. The terrain was bumpy and the hills/mountains did not have guardrails - which fell into the water. Every time we turned a corner the driver would beep his horn to warn a driver coming the opposite way - I thought he knew everyone. We made our first stop at a little cliff and took pictures of the town - it was beautiful!

We arrived at the Sandals Regency Resort at 4:30PM and went straight into the check-in room where we were greeted with a delicious rum punch - our first drink on the island. After checking in we made dinner reservations for the 2 restaurants (La Toc and Kimonos) that needed reservations and then took a shuttle to our room. We got into our room and decided not to take the 5PM tour of the resort and decided to venture out our own. We had dinner at the Arizona - a southwestern type of restaurant (Steaks, ribs, grilled shrimp) and then had to go to the gift shop. Lucky for us it was 8PM and that is the time the gift shop closed, but they held it open just for us. We both forgot toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, and pretty much all of that stuff. We then went back to our room and ended up going to bed at 8:30PM. We had an exhausting day!