It Begins...

Our villa in St. John, The Retreat, is aptly named - we are so far away from everyone and everything! It is totally quiet except for the waves and the crickets, and it's awesome. Well, awesome except for the endless mosquito attacks and the ant colonies constantly descending on our food. I guess that's just something we have to deal with given the openness of this villa. But it's worth it – the place and the views are incredible. (The picture above is just the bedroom building - the rest of the villa is in a separate building through the courtyard.)

We got up early Sunday morning at the Westin in Charlotte, and Tom's dad picked us up for a brunch he and Tom’s mom were hosting at their hotel (The Dunhill). Lots of our family & some of the bridal party were there, but we only had about 20 minutes to visit and eat before heading to the airport. We were both a little sad to leave everyone and put an end to the wedding festivities, but we also couldn't wait to be lounging in total relaxation & seclusion in the Virgin Islands.

When we got on our plane, we found out that Helen Alford, one of my family’s church friends who had been at the wedding, brought some of our M&M favors to the USairways flight crew on our plane to St. Thomas. When we were in our seats (in first class!!!), the crew members all came to say hello, and we got to sit in the cockpit with the captain. :-) Flying first class was sweet because the second we got on the plane they were offering us drinks and snacks. We had pillows & blankets, tons of legroom, and more food than we could handle since we had just eaten brunch two hours before. They fed us lunch complete with a blondie for dessert, and we each had a tiny personal salt & pepper shaker!

After we landed, the various modes of transportation to get from St. Thomas to St. John were seamless. We had a private taxi waiting to take us across St. Thomas right when we got off the plane. Our taxi driver took us to a ferry (you can only get to St. John by water!), and we rode over and met a woman who helped us get our jeep, took us to the grocery store, and led us across the island to our villa. She also bought us a bottle of champagne since we're on our honeymoon. So far, everything is going perfectly.

The Retreat is on the far east end of the island - about 30 minutes from the main town of Cruz Bay. When we got here it was nearing dusk, but we could still tell what an incredible view we had from our villa. Our guide said she thinks it's the best view in all of St. John! We have our own pool & hot tub, and most of the walls are windows that open completely to the ocean air (with screens we can choose to lower if the mosquitoes are bad, and they're bad most of the time). There isn't anyone around within sight - not another villa, a boat, a resort - nothing. It's awesome.

Places close for dinner pretty early in Coral Bay, the closest town to us, so thanks to Tom's smart thinking at the grocery store, we decided to make a pizza for dinner... which we burned. Half of it was still somewhat salvageable, though, so we had burnt pizza and beer for dinner on the first night of our honeymoon. So romantic. :-)

After dinner, we spent some time in the hot tub & pool and then went to bed early - we're already finding that here, early to bed works pretty well... that way we're up by 9am and down on the beach by 10 before it gets too hot (and it means we get a full day of beach/island time). Also, St. John shuts down pretty early at night - there’s not much going on after dark, but we found other ways to amuse ourselves.