1/29/14 St. Croix, 7:30am (6:30am home time)
The Palms at Pelican Cove
Sitting on a patio chair off of our room. Everyone else is still dozing. What an amazing night of sleep! I'm happily surprised, actually- didn't expect that! I don't usually sleep well while away from home!
Right now, all I hear is wind and palm tree branches swaying, and ocean waves. The air smells tropical. A huge pelican keeps diving to the ground among the palms, and a little lizard is scurrying along the coral and shell-lined patio wall.
Yesterday was LONG but good- thankful to the Lord that it all worked out! First, we hit a snow squall on the ride to Boston (we left home at 3:30am). Then, we made it through the airport detours. Practically ran for the airport shuttle in the sub-freezing 5:30am morning. Our first flight was late in taking off and took longer than expected(we sat on the plane for 4 hours total), and so we barely made it to our connecting flight out of Miami. The STX airport was HOT and small (one baggage claim)! There was no tarmac; we walked off the plane down stairs to the ground. We finally got our luggage and rental, and then began the stressful yet funny, GPS-less(no signal) journey to the hotel. Mark and I had a lot of laughing yells, as we navigated his driving on the left side of the road! We made it!
It is what Trip Advisor reviewers said it was- a bit run down and not fancy! Almost more like an aunt's old beach cabin than a hotel. Dinner last night was crazy- we waited 25 minutes at the table before anyone even took a drink order. I went to the room for granola bars for the kids b/c they were so hungry. Nobody asked us how the food was (it was awesome, actually), or if we needed anything else, etc. But- despite the place being not posh, the view and property on the water are amazing! I am so relaxed already! It's therapeutic.
(Here are some pics of us checking out the hotel a little, when we arrived, including loving on the hermit crabs and geckos that were scurrying around on the beachfront patio. The beach is also covered with coral, especially 'brain coral", and shells- the saying here is "leave only footprints," meaning ocean creatures can be touched but not taken, which makes the whole area amazing to explore- it's full of beautiful things and creatures! We stayed in our long sleeves and pants for a short bit since we were excited to check things out, but as soon as we could, the bathing suits went on!)
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