Sunny St. Croix

We just returned from my favorite almost free vacation ever! Drew audits a bank in St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands (lucky, right?) so I of course went down to join him for the last half of his stay. It was super relaxing, and we had tons of fun. While Drew worked during the day, I just hung out on the beach... taking advantage of the local rum selection. :) We did a lot of eating and drinking at night. That's about it, really. Not the most exciting vacation, but it was exactly what I needed!

Our hotel wasn't fabulous, but you can't really complain about a free hotel. We got spoiled because last year the bank put us up at The Bucaneer, one of the top 50 beach resorts in the world. Well, apparently there was some sort of falling out and the bank is no longer associated with the Bucaneer. So we stayed at the Divi Carina. It had a beach and that's what I was looking for. I'm still crossing my fingers though that this little feud gets resolved and we get to go back to the Bucaneer next year!

My first night on the island Drew took me to a seafood restaurant right off the water. I took advantage of our location and had lobster for the first time ever. It was delish!

I had a bit of a time figuring out how to get the loster out of its shell. It was hard work, but totally worth it!

This is us after our lobster dinner. I wish you could see the water behind us. It was so pretty!

The whole group went to Cheeseburger in Paradise one night to watch crab races. It was pretty exciting, and I was definitely startled to see how fast those crabs are!

This is definitely not the same Cheeseburger in Paradise that we have in KC! Its basically a tent and some grills set up in a parking lot. You can see people sitting in lawn chairs. Those are the regular chairs in the restaurant. Its pretty classy.

Another one of us at Cheeseburger. I have to admit, the burgers were actually really good.

Another night we went into town to walk around on the boardwalk and hang out. Too bad the sun is behind us!

A very classy picture in front of the information office. At least you can see our faces though!

We went to a sushi restaurant for dinner with Drew's coworkers and their spouses to celebrate April 15. Its a pretty big deal for those accountants!

Usually with sushi, I stick to California rolls. But I figured since we were here, I might as well branch out and try some different things. Everything was super yummy! Especially my wine!

Don't be fooled, I'm terrible with chopsticks! I dropped a lot of sushi!

Don't we look like a fun group? Those accountants take April 15th very seriously!!! I guess they deserve it after the busy season they've been through!

The view from our hotel was just gorgeous. I seriously would love to live somewhere with a beach. The boat on the right is actually Drew's coworker's husband. He rented this little sail boat and we had a great time watching him figure out how to work it.

Darren really enjoyed the sailing. I mean he REALLY enjoyed it! I'm pretty sure he went out and got a tattoo of an anchor on his arm.

I love the beach! And my hubby. Drew was much better this year at just relaxing on the beach. In previous trips he's gotten antsy and bored just laying out. I packed lots of books and magazines for him so that wouldn't happen this year!

This fellow just kind of stood around, putting the vibe out there. You can see he's got some very attractive almost speedo length short shorts, but what you probably can't see is that he's holding a camera that he uses to take pictures of girls in bikinis while they aren't looking. Awesome!

I spent a lot of time on the beach while Drew worked. But trust me, I didn't get bored! I read the first and second Twilight books in the first three days of the trip. I would have been done sooner, but I book two took longer to get through because I would start sobbing uncontrolably on the beach while reading it. So I'd have to put the book down and walk back to our room to settle down before going back and starting it again. Big sunglasses help, but no one wants to see someone bawling on the beach! So after I finally finished two, I went back and reread the first one. Obsessed. Seriously.

Our last night on the island was spent at Chicken Charleys, a local... well, chicken restaurant. And, to our surprise a live band was playing that night! Sandy and the Wildcats rocked all night long. Sandy is on the keyboards on the right, and I'm guessing she was about 75 years old. Her fans were out in full force too, all of them about the same age.

Paige was our only little one on the trip. The poor girl had a loose tooth, but mom and dad told her that the tooth fairy doesn't come to the islands. So she was determined to keep it in. This is Griff (not her dad) trying to yank it out. It was pretty disgusting!

I guess they made amends, because soon they were on the dance floor rocking out to Sandy and the Wildcats. They weren't the only ones though. There was a lot of jitter-bugging going on!

All in all, it was a pretty fabulous trip. I was ready to get home to my doggies though! I also really wanted to get over to Kelly's and trade out books 1 & 2 of Twilight for books 3 & 4!!!


The pups were glad to get home too. They spent the week at grandma & grandpa's (thanks mom & dad!) and were eager to get back to their very busy schedule of napping in the sun.