June 10, 2012
Well we are in the lobby of our hotel waiting for the shuttle to take us to the airport. Some of the entertainment staff are here to see us off with trays of sandwiches, cookies and bottled water. What an awesome week we had, it went by way too quick!
The weather on my iPhone said showers everyday and rain on Friday but as usual my phone was wrong. The weather was beautiful, sunny with a few clouds and a couple 5 minutes showers (not enough to even go for cover).
I have really bad luck with cameras when I am on vacation! I dropped one in the Persian Gulf when I was in Dubai a couple years ago. I was in Vancouver a couple months ago, while I was there my camera quit working. Just before we left I bought a new one. So we had the new one, an underwater one and the video camera from the office to make a video. First of all we forgot to pack the charger for the underwater camera and it died about two days in to the trip. On Friday I lost my new one while doing hotel inspections of Sandals La Toc and Sandals Halcyon. I had some amazing images from the millionaire’s suite at La Toc. I called the concierge desk to get them to call the hotels and the shuttle company but they couldn’t find it. I left my card with them just in case it shows up after we leave. It is a good thing I have RBC travel insurance to replace it, but I sure am sad to lose all those pictures. They need to invent a tracker I can attach to my camera!
It was fun to watch the wedding staff set up all the weddings and to see all the happy wedding couples. If someone wants to get married at a Sandals Resort the weddings are free and they do a really nice job with the decorations. I also checked out some of the wedding photos that “SnapShots” took and they were really good.
The highlight of my trip was the Simon Says tour…Volcano, mud bath and the waterfall! I have Simon’s card if anyone is going to St Lucia and would like to do the most popular excursion on the island.
After a week of relaxing in the sun with my 50 Shades of Grey book it is time to get back home to see my grand babies and get back to work to see what Heather, Correna and Chloe have been up to (I sure missed the three of them!)
June 7, 2012
This island is amazing! We did the Soufriere Experience yesterday. We were picked up at our dock at nine am and boarded a speed boat. We boated to the south of the island so Soufriere (which is Sulphur in English). On the way we stopped at a bat cave (yuck)

Bats! There are bats in the crack of that rock!
as well as Piton (twin peaks) that is what the island is known for, even the island beer is even called Piton (it is pretty good!).

Pitons
When we got off the boat we were taken to taxi vans to take us to the Sulphur Springs which is in a volcano. It smelt really bad! While at the springs we did a sulphur mud bath which was awesome!

Sulfur mud bath.
After the mud bath we went for a traditional St Lucian lunch of rice and peas, salad, and chicken, it was really good. After lunch we went to a waterfall for a swim, the water was really cold and refreshing. After the swim we went back to the speed boat for our trip home; it was an awesome day! We decided to just go to the London Pub for a steak and watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs, hoping the Kings would win in four games. I guess we will wait for game five. 🙂
Rod played a round of golf this morning at Sandals La Toc. They gave him six golf balls and he came home with three, he said his shots were straight but the earth moved. He had lots of fun, I knew it would be way too hot for me to walk the course with him so I stayed at the hotel. I decided this morning that my dream bed is a little too high, I almost have to zip line to get off of it!

I love my canopy bed!
After Rod got back hot, sweaty, and happy we decided to go to the beach for the day. It was a beautiful beach day! I have arranged to do hotel inspections at Sandals LaToc and Sandals Halycon tomorrow and maybe after that we will go to the mall and casino.
By the way, the speedboat went south, so I still don`t know what happens when the Atlantic Ocean meets the Caribbean Sea. 🙂
June 3rd, 2012 Sandals Grand St Lucian
I am blogging from the balcony of our Grand Luxury Oceanview Concierge Suite after our first full day at Sandals Grand St. Lucian. The commercials say it is the Jewel of the Caribbean and they are right! From the balcony I see an amazing beach on the Caribbean Sea along with lush mountains and lots of yachts (when I win the lottery I am going to have a yacht and have Captain Ron sail us down the Caribbean) across the hallway I can see the Atlantic Ocean – I wonder what happens when the two mix – I guess I will find out sometime this week!
On our way down we flew with WestJet and had our first stop in Calgary for four hours so we decided to check out the Chinook Lounge. It cost $30 each and included a quiet area with comfortable chairs, lunch, snacks and a full bar…well worth the money!!! When we went to check in to our next flight we were told about a new thing WestJet has. They are taking the TVs out of the seats and are offering to rent laptops (with headphones) for about $10. They were offering them free from flights from Calgary to Toronto as a demo so we tried them out. They have newer movies (I watched “We Bought a Zoo” and Footloose”) there was also some games, TV shows and music, the best part is you don’t lose the signal!

On-board entertainment on WestJet
Toronto airport was so quick. We deplaned, picked up our bags, got on the shuttle, checked in to the Crown Plaza and were in the lounge at Boston Pizza before the overtime period in the NHL started (Kings won – Yahoo!) it only took about 35 min total to get to the lounge. This hotel is close to the airport and has a free shuttle, they cater to travellers and even have a TV with the arrivals and departures. They also have an iPod docking station. Some of my friends think if the hotel doesn`t have a docking station it is no good (oh yeah…my room here has one as well 🙂 )
The flight from Toronto to St Lucia was on time and awesome except for when we got close to Bermuda and lost the satellite signal. I had my iPad but it sure will be good for everyone to have the chance to rent one of those new Dell laptops, they are about 13 inch so I guess they are closer to a netbook. The keys are lit up so you can see what you are doing in the dark, I think it is very cool.
The transfer from the airport to the hotel was about 2 hours so after a long day we just had a bite to eat and relaxed in our awesome room. The best part of this room for me is the FOUR POSTER CANOPY BED; I have wanted a bed like this for as long as I can remember.

My canopy bed!
Today we had an orientation and know are way around, Rod even found out where to buy a cigar 🙂