Friday, August 1, 2014

Vacation and Relaxation

Hi Hive! I am so excited to get back to regular postings, but until I get my pro photos to start my recaps let's talk about something else. Honeymoons!

Being on the other side now (still amazing) I totally understand the need for one and why people go right after the wedding. The wedding itself is stressful and it's a great way to relax and unwind, which I totally understand now. Besides, who wouldn't want to spend a whole bunch of time with your new spouse smooching and loving life? I get it I really do. However, we joined the ranks of many bees before us when we decided to delay our honeymoon. Shocker, I know (ok maybe not). You will understand after this post, I promise!

 Mr. Farmer and I decided pretty early where we were going to head for our honeymoon, Bora Bora. There is no place like it in the world and it was a pretty easy decision for us to make. It was the one place we both wanted to go and it was the only place either of us considered going. We enjoy traveling and wanted to make sure our honeymoon was a trip of a lifetime and Bora Bora accomplishes that for us.
How can you say no to this, over water bungalows:

Photo via Hilton

I die, this is amazing! That is, until we started looking at travel times and flight times. Mr. Farmer has serious knee problems (surgery is on the horizon) and I have serious problems with my back/knees, so being in a plane for that long was a big no-no for our health (being 6'0 on a plane can be challenging at best). Doctors were consulted and the resounding answer was "No, not advised at this time". Bummer! Another deciding factor was that we didn't want to be quite so far away from the children, so with that we kissed our dream honeymoon good-bye and tried to find something a little closer to home.

To us, we knew that a beach was where we wanted to go. We went to Cozumel this past January on what we called our "pre-moon" so we knew without a doubt that Mexico was out for us. Fun fact time - the resort thought we were on our honeymoon and every time we tried to tell them we weren't married yet they thought we were joking.   

The Barns living it up in Cozumel with BM K/husband M and GM E/wife J:

Photos personal

I left the planning up to Mr. Farmer and he came to me to get the final approval. I gave him a few requirements and he was able to arrange the whole thing. So where are the Barns headed on their honeymoon?

Sandals Regency La Toc Saint Lucia!





I cannot even begin to describe how excited we are to go here. Now the other big mystery, when are we going on said honeymoon? Winters in Minnesota are pretty rough; it's frigidly cold and the wind makes it pretty unbearable. Mr. Farmer and I were both born in the month of January and what better way to celebrate our birthdays and beat the winter blues than to head somewhere warm and tropical. So the Barns will be holding off for 6 months and taking our luxurious honeymoon this coming January. Plus I needed to rack up some vacation time at my new job so it worked out perfectly for us to hold off.

Let's check out what we have in store for us in January. We have elected to go with the Sunset Bluff Oceanfront Two Story One Bedroom Butler Villa Suite with Private Pool (what a mouth full)!



Oh yes, you read that correctly - a private pool and a private butler! We wanted to make this a trip of a lifetime so in addition to the killer suite we made sure to purchase first class airline tickets. If we are going to do a first class honeymoon we might as well go all out right?! We also decided due to our medical issues the extra room first class provides was invaluable. We don't want to spend our honeymoon in physical pain so it was a very easy decision for us. 

The suite we chose also provides another amenity that was pretty invaluable to us. It's a good 90 minutes from the airport to the resort and with this suite comes a private car service to transport you from the airport to the resort. Knowing that we won't have to travel in a crowded bus going through the twists and turns it takes to arrive at our final destination is peace of mind for both of us (and our stomachs). 

Speaking of stomachs, yeah I just did that, I cannot wait to try all nine (yes nine!) of the restaurants on the premises. With the butler service we also have the option of having breakfast/lunch/dinner served to us in our room if we decide we don't want to venture out of the room, or as I prefer, put on real clothes. We have a choice of just about every cuisine we could choose from: French, Italian, Mediterranean, British, Seafood, and Asian Inspired. We even have a pizza place and a sushi restaurant! I have already made arrangements for a gym membership after this trip. I may or may not gain about 20 lbs enjoying all the amazing food!

Now, if we decide that we have explored enough of our resort we can venture to the other two Sandals resorts on St. Lucia. As part of the Sandals package we can take a trip to Sandals Grande Saint Lucia or Sandals Halcyon Beach to experience their amenities or restaurants. 

Needless to say we are looking forward to this trip! So now I turn to the wonderful Hive and ask, has anyone been to Saint Lucia? What are your recommendations? 

All photos via Sandals Regency La Toc unless otherwise noted