St. Kitts: A Smith Family Vacation (Part 1)

Hey Everyone! After 16 hours of travel yesterday, we're finally home from our amazing vacation to St. Kitts. We had a blast lounging by the ocean, exploring the island, eating like kings, and spending some quality time with Smith family. Because our trip was 7 days long, I'm going to split the recap into a couple different posts, otherwise this sucker would go on for miles! 

Day 1- Saturday 

This vacation started SUPER early! In order to make our flight on time, Ryan and I had to wake up at 2:30 in the morning! We loaded up the car and drove over to the Logan Express shuttle in Braintree. Since this was our first time trying out the Logan Express, we wanted to make sure we gave ourselves plenty of time. The bus dropped us off directly at our terminal though, which was awesome. We boarded the plane and took off to Miami on time (what a novelty!) We made our connection and before we knew it, we were landing in St. Kitts! 

The views out the window from Miami to St. Kitts were beautiful!!

By the time Ryan and I made it through customs and claimed our luggage, Brad, Susan, Brandon, and Rachel were waiting for us outside the airport with a rental van! We loaded it up and headed straight for the hotel. We couldn't check in to our suite at the Marriott for an hour and a half, so we took the time to explore the property a bit, stopping at the beach for a photo opportunity! I was blown away by the view on this beach; there were mountains everywhere! 

We checked into our room around 4, relaxed for a bit while everyone took turns showering, and headed to dinner at Calypso Restaurant right on the property.

The view from our suite balcony! I love the mountains in the distance! 

From the balcony looking in on the kitchen and living room area. 

 Since the day started so early, everyone was pretty tired after dinner and we all decided to go to bed around 8:30 to make sure we had plenty of energy for the next day!

 Day 2- Sunday 

Sunday morning, Ryan, Susan, and I started our day out in the gym! Afterwards, everyone walked down to the beach, where we snagged ourselves a beach-side cabana to lounge around for the rest of the day! Since the St Kittitian sun is just a little brighter than the New England sun i'm used to, I began to fry pretty early on. To play it safe, Ryan and I only spent a couple hours in the sun before calling it quits- nobody wants to be sunburnt on their first day of vacation!

Once everyone had their fill of beach for the day, we showered up and drove to check out Shipwreck Beach. As we're driving up the mountains, we noticed a beautiful overlook of Frigate Bay (where we stayed) and stopped for a couple pictures while the sun began to set.

I love this picture of the brothers and their wives! 

The in-laws! 

When we had our fill of pictures, we continued our drive to Shipwreck Beach. The beach was beautiful and there were a couple different restaurants (or food huts) there, but everything closes at sunset, so we just missed all of the action. We did, however, catch ourselves a beautiful sunset!

The beautiful sunset at Shipwreck Beach 

 Since we couldn't eat dinner at that beach, we decided to drive back towards the hotel and check out a restaurant called, the Rock Lobster! I'm glad we did, because the food was amazing and it was the only night for the remainder of our trip that this restaurant was open!

After dinner, Brandon was assaulted by a guy we referred to as "Monkey Man". He was holding a tiny monkey which he forced upon Brandon and then cursed the group out when we didn't give him any money. He was the most interested character we came across on that island. We hurriedly left the restaurant and headed straight for the casino in our resort, where we stayed until 1 in the morning! 

Since the resort was celebrating it's 10th birthday, they handed out $10 casino credits to every guest and let us spin a wheel for additional money. The men all received an additional $5, while the girls banked $10 extra bucks, which we all used on the slot machines. 

Day 3- Monday  

 On Monday, the group decided we wanted to check out Bay Street, a shopping area where the cruise ships dock for the day. We spent a good portion of the day walking around all of the different shops, bargaining some good prices for souvenirs, and trying to avoid "Monkey Man" at all costs (yes, he popped up again- monkey in hand)! Ryan and I left that day with a postcard, an ornament, a sweatshirt, and a beach wrap! 

Port Zante 

 We worked up quite an appetite shopping, so we stopped to eat at a Ballahoo's Restaurant in Basseterre. After lunch, we made a couple more stops before heading back to the resort. Our first stop was the Carib brewery, where we picked up a case of Carib and a case of Stag, two of the locally brewed beers in St. Kitts.

 Our last stop was unplanned. As we were driving back to the resort, Rachel wanted to stop at a local cemetery to take some cool pictures. On the cemetery property, there was a very old-looking church and you could see Mt. Liamuiga in the background (although it was kind of covered up by clouds at the moment).

When we got back to the resort, everyone spent a couple hours lounging by the pool, drinking, and playing shuffleboard! For dinner Monday night, the Smith family went to Karma, a local chinese/indian/thai restaurant right on the beach. 

On our balcony before dinner! 

To round out the night, we sat around the table and played Dominos for a couple hours! We were definitely off to an amazing start to our vacation! 

-Sarah