Gabrielsens Go To St. Kitts - Part 1

Mom and Dad's kids love to travel together!

In 1989, my siblings and I planned an escape vacation (we were all raising our kids then) 

with Mom and Dad and our spouses, no kids.

We went on a Princess Caribbean Cruise, and ever since that happy trip, 

we have tried to go somewhere together every 2/3/4 years. 

Mom and Dad are gone now and Kay and Ken are serving an LDS mission in Japan 

(and, by the way, we missed you guys!),

 but it's been a long time since our last trip and we were eager to go somewhere together.

Hal came up with a great place for us to go - a Marriott Vacation Club property 

on the Eastern Caribbean island of St. Kitts, 

or more formally known as Saint Christopher Island in the West Indies. 

This lovely tropical floral arrangement greeted us in the lobby.

Sitting on the Atlantic side, this property is the largest resort on the island and provided a wonderful retreat,

though the temps hovered around 90 degrees and the humidity was 85% and over.

There were two couples per unit, which had two bedrooms and bathrooms 

and a common area with a nice kitchen. 

While we were getting unpacked, Tom explored and found free smoothies being made 

as an offering of the resort that afternoon.

Of course we all had to hurry and get one.

They were delicious!

We had spotted a local lobster restaurant on the road to our resort.

It was a great way to begin the culinary fun!

When we returned to our resort, we were greeted with the sight of the pools lit up - so pretty!

The guys all love to golf and purchased packages to play unlimited holes each day.

Roger and Hal played five days, and Roger played a total of 144 holes while we were there!

Friday the girls swam in the ocean and in the pool, showered and dressed, 

had a late lunch with the guys, after they returned from golfing, of grilled fish sandwiches 

in the Marriott cafe on the beach.

We needed to go to town for groceries so we could fix breakfasts and most lunches in our units.

We planned to tour the town, shop for groceries and eat dinner somewhere.

A quick pic in the open air lobby before we left

Basseterre is the capital/only town of any size on St. Kitts. 

There are no stop lights on the island, 

but round-abouts to control traffic (Roger loves those),

and the Berkeley Memorial is in the "circus" where four roads converge, with a clock face pointing to each one.

We started our tour of Bassaterre here.

Clay Villa is in the background

Heading to historic St. George's Anglican Church

St. George's Anglican Church

From its early settlement in the 1600s, every religion found fertile soil on the island of St. Kitts. 

Besides the many reform movements of Christianity, 

the tiny island made room for Jewish and Catholic worship. 

We saw many different churches as we toured the island a couple of days later.

My fun brother, John, had studied the history of the island thoroughly, 

and he was our tour guide, explaining many interesting little facts and tidbits throughout our stay.

As you can see, we gave him our rapt attention.

Wherever John travels, he learns the history, 

then explains it well, interjecting his cute personality.

He would have been a great history teacher!

We saw so many lovely tropical flowers!

John spotted his name on this menu board and had to try a cinnamon Johnny cake.

The guys were also tempted by the meats barbecuing on the grills - perhaps a little sketchy.

John with two of his namesake treats - I think we all had a taste.

Tasty! 

We had Johnny cake again in a restaurant, but it wasn't as good as this street food was.

We were doing our walking tour on Friday afternoon, and TGIF is also practiced on St. Kitts. 

We saw many families who had come to town to sell their wares and have some weekend fun.

There are thousands of vervet monkeys roaming wild on St. Kitts.

They have inhabited the island 

for over 300 years and are their symbol.

This cute girl was sitting in the back of a truck loaded with produce, 

probably doing her weekend homework.

We grandmas get that same delighted expression on our faces when we hold our grandchildren - 

it's universal!

Roger, Patty and I went into the local market to find some local treasures - 

jams and jellies, cookies, fresh produce (we thought!) - 

and it was jammed with busy natives, 

probably who had just gotten off work or had just come to town to get their groceries.

Kind of a fun experience, and we scored, finding spicy plantain chips and yummy cookies. 

We stopped in an IGA grocery store on our way back home to get our staples.

There was some kind of a Carnival celebration in town that night and the streets were full!

We decided that each couple needed to be in charge two nights to pick where we could eat.

John and Cindy took their job very seriously, tracking down Lemon Grass Thai Restaurant, 

after a couple of failed attempts, changing their minds after walking up dank stairways, etc.

They scored with this one - our food was delicious!

Patty and Cindy ordered locally-made ginger beer, which was really strong. . . 

. . . caused a slow burn in the throat,

but was strangely addicting.

We had yummy spring roll appetizers.

Probably the highlight of the meal was the home-made ice cream we had.

The coconut was to die for and Patty and John LOVED the rum raisin!

We didn't get a pic that night, but we took this one when John and Cindy enjoyed ice cream 

in our hotel restaurant - not as delicious but still tasted good and helped cool us down in that humid heat.

Little short thunder storms would pop up in the late afternoon, 

but we mostly had sunny weather every day.

We enjoyed lots of beach time.

The water was warm and clear and it felt good getting wet, 

then sitting under the cabanas with the tropical breezes blowing.

Our girls gave us these snorkeling masks for Roger's birthday to take with us on this trip.

They are amazing!

You don't need that nasty mouthpiece and you just breathe normally underwater.

They don't even fog up!

Our routine was to swim in the ocean and lie on the beach in the morning after we exercised, 

then we would head to the swimming pool.

Saturday night we met in the lobby, then headed to The Strip, a long line of beach outdoor casual restaurants, 

to try Shiggidy Shack, one that came highly recommended.

The tropical juices offered at each restaurant were delicious.

We had tasty fresh fish that night, though we didn't get a pic.

I'll end Part 1 with a pic of this beautiful couple .

To be continued . . .