One Year Down, Forever to Go

July 9, 2016, was one of the best days of our lives. It was the day Luke and I became husband and wife.
There's a wedding photo in case you haven't seen any yet.
 It is crazy how much can happen in just one year. Most couples get married, honeymoon for a week, settle down in their new home and start their jobs. We had a different path to follow. We got married, honeymooned for a couple of weeks, then vacationed with family until the end of August when we packed up two suitcases, and four carry-ons and moved to a Caribbean island that I'd only heard about the year before. Most of our wedding gifts we simply unwrapped before placing them in storage bins, and it's hard to remember what we actually own. It will be like Christmas again when we move back to the states and unpack everything. In one year, we've stayed in three countries and eight states and have traveled through many others. In one year we've learned so much and fallen even deeper in love. We've seen God protect and provide for us, and we are just so grateful for His blessings. With Luke in medical school, we don't get to spend much time together, so I wasn't expecting much in the way of celebration for our first wedding anniversary. I wanted it to be special, and to my surprise and excitement, I realized that Luke had July 10-11th off because of Carnival, a Vincy celebration. We were able to go to the nearby island of Bequia (pronounced Beck-way) and stay at an incredible resort from July 8-11th. We decided to basically ignore social media and the rest of the world for the time we were there and just focus on each other. It was such a relaxing, peaceful, wonderful time spent together.

We woke up early Saturday morning to catch an H-van to Kingstown where we only had to walk a short distance to reach the docks. We boarded the ferry to Bequia and about 45 minutes later we reached our destination.


Coming into Admiralty Bay, Bequia


The resort owner was there to greet us when we arrived at the dock in Bequia and took us to Tropical Hideaway Resort. The resort is appropriately named and breathtakingly beautiful. The owners gave us a tour when we arrived, and we were blown away by how incredibly beautiful everything was. We stayed in the Palm Cottage which was relatively secluded and had a beautiful view of Admiralty Bay.

Palm Cottage
How cute are these keys to our cottage!






The view from our balcony.
We really enjoyed our little cottage. We loved making and eating English bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches complete with fresh basil and fresh avocado. We ate all of our meals on our balcony or by the pool enjoying the views. The first night we arrived we had takeout pizza, or as they say here, takeaway pizza from a restaurant called Mac's. It was absolutely delicious. We used the charcoal grill one night to grill burgers and sausages. It was such a beautiful grilling area.





Burgers by the pool.

The infinity pool at Tropical Hideaway was one of the main reasons why we wanted to stay here. It is absolutely incredible! I'm not positive, but I think I read somewhere that it is one of the top ten pools in the Caribbean. Every evening we were able to watch the sunset from the pool. We also loved lounging by the pool during the day, soaking up the sun and the views. We took advantage of the pool bar, making smoothies a few times or sipping island soda by the pool.

Gingerale and a view









One day we walked down to Princess Margaret Beach and took the walkway along the water all the way into the main town. It was a much longer walk than we had anticipated, but it was so beautiful! We were able to see a lot of wildlife including snails, lizards, birds, and sea urchins. As we returned from our walk, we saw a young man holding an octopus. We also saw two adorable little puppies and one large crab! 
Entrance to the walkway down to the main road.

The gate and steep stairway we took down the main road

Princess Margaret Beach






The walkway wound its way along the water's edge. It was beautiful!

Since it was so hot, we stopped for Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream

The bar stools are supposed to be made of whale vertebrae

There were many sea urchins in the water 

The crab we found

We found the restaurant we had ordered pizza from.
Our anniversary trip was a dream vacation that became a reality, and we are so grateful that we had that special time together! It has been an honor being Luke's wife this past year, and I'm looking forward to seeing what new adventures are in our future. There is so much to look forward to, yet so much that is unclear about the times ahead. The uncertainty makes me very thankful that our Heavenly Father is in complete control.

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