Last year, as we were celebrating 9 years together, we decided anniversary 10 was a big one and we should mark it with a trip. We thought seriously about going back to Kauai (our honeymoon location), almost booked the plane ticket, but after hearing lots of good things from Zach and Cristin about Sandal's resorts we decided there was a certain charm to going tropical where everything was all included, no time change to recover from and we wouldn't have to think about anything else other than relaxing and enjoying ourselves. We went to the Sandal's website and noticed they had a new resort opening in December in Grenada and without much thought we booked a room! I mean seriously...doesn't Grenada just sounded awesomely tropical? It also didn't hurt that because we booked long before the resort actually opened that we got a killer deal!
For those of you who have never gotten the opportunity to visit a Sandal's, trust me when I say if you ever do don't hesitate to just go. Our time in Grenada was perfect. Not only was the location beautiful and warm, but the people in Grenada were also incredibly nice and friendly. With 9 restaurants and a hot dog stand there were plenty of food options and we never got bored with the variety.
Sadly, we don't have too many pictures because basically we stayed in the lounging position the entire week. Which if you know Trey and I, not doing anything but laying in the sun under an umbrella, reading books (I read one entire book each day we were gone and Trey actually read one whole book and is over 50% into his second one...WHAT!), drinking drinks and occasionally swimming when we got hot is not normally how we do vacation. We are usually much more adventurous but the truth is we were exhausted, I guess just from the day to day routines of life and we found ourselves truly enjoying doing absolutely nothing and answering to no one! I am leaving this vacation feeling more relaxed than I have felt in forever.
One night we opted to take a 2 hour sunset cruise, which also happened to be the ONLY time we left the resort, but does that even count if the boat was chartered by the resort and the only other passenger's were also Sandal's guests??? I don't know, but the cruise was fabulous. The guides were very informative. We saw one of Oprah Winfrey's vacation homes, as well as Grand Anse Beach, the longest beach in Grenada (2 miles of beautiful white sand and a perfect spot for swimming). We were also informed that walking on Grand Anse Beach felt like walking on Cheddar Cheese, whatever that feels like! We didn't set foot on the actual beach just admired it as we passed by. The cruise also took us into St. Georges, their largest city and where cruise ships dock. St. George's is also the home to KFC, which was such a hit when it first opened on the island an additional one had to be built right across the street because so many people flocked there on a daily basis and the lines were always so long KFC needed another location to meet the demand for fried chicken. Apparently the chicken at those KFC's is incredibly good because they aways use fresh chickens right from the island. Again, just viewing it from the boat I didn't get to actually eat any of this chicken, but I can vouch that any time I was served chicken while at the resort it was incredible, very juicy and flavorful.
Let's be honest, laying around for 6 days straight, never leaving the resort, gave us plenty of time to not only people watch but also get to know some of the other guests. Everyone we met was very friendly and it was kind of nice running into people on a regular basis. Recognizing faces sort of installed a sense of belonging, I guess. It's really hard to put the feeling to words. Some people we ran into and talked to so much we were on a first name basis. Other couples like drunk guy and fake boobs couple or even the odd couple (who we first noticed in Charlotte) and lady who think's she's 20 even though she's clearly closer to mid 50's we would simply just wave or smile at! I know it sounds like we're horrible but all of you who are reading this probably come up with your own nicknames to remember faces by!
Speaking of nicknames I cannot do this post and not mention George W. Bush. Tuesday night we had the pleasure of eating dinner with former president George W. Bush's clone! I'm not lying. We were sitting at Kimono's eagerly anticipating our Habachi Japanese dinner when I look up and glance at the couple seated across the table from us. Immediately I turned to Trey and tell him to check the guy out. Then we hear him speak and I'll be damned if he doesn't have a southern drawl. Then the couple next to us asks him where he's from. Can you guess? TEXAS! No way right! I was floored! Throughout the entire week I begged Trey to take a picture of him, but he refused. Then as we were sitting in the Miami airport eating TGI Friday's in walks George W, and no lie he is seated at the table right beside me. I told Trey it was fate and he had to take a picture...fortunately he obliged. It's not a great picture but I still think it looks just like George W!
Anyways, people watching also opened my eyes to things I never really realized before. Tattoo's are completely in for men. In fact I would say if you didn't have one you were in the minority. Here's another fact, why is it that as men age tattoos look perfectly normal, but when you see a much much older woman (I'm talking grey hair) do they look out of place and scream tramp stamp! Yes, I know thats a double standard thing to say, but this is my blog and well that's my justification! Or did you know that apparently you're never to old to wear a string bikini? Another thing which surprised us both were the wide age ranges of the guests staying at Sandals, but to be honest that's one of the things we liked most about it. This Sandals' resort was not just some place for young hot couple to go party, it was filled with lots of people of lots of ages just relaxing and having a good time.
So now you pretty much know what we did during the day but what about the evenings. Well after dinner we sat around some more. They had these awesome fire pits you could hang out at and listen to music or hammocks you could lay in while star gazing, we got lucky one night and even saw a shooting star!
About halfway into the week I said to Trey we need a picture of us dressed up at night so we set out on a selfie mission. Clearly we failed miserable. The picture of our feet is the best we got! I hate the picture below because I look completely wasted and I promise you I was not, but out of my love for Trey and his love of horrible Kelly pictures I'm including it in this post!
So, you're probably wondering whether or not the girls missed us while we were gone. The truth is yes, I'm sure they did (on one of our phone calls with them Addie specifically asked me what was taking me so long to walk home! Haha!), but we are fortunate enough to have great friends and family who all helped us out with the kids and made this 10 year anniversary trip even possible! And from the looks of the pictures we received they had just as much fun as we did.
Mimi and Papaw took them to the fair...
John and Lindsay helped them get a jump start on studying to become OBGYN's...
Lexie saw a dream come true when she finally got to ride a "real" school bus on her first official field trip as a Kindergartner...
Aunt Allison taught them how to belly dance...
And both Nana and Aunt Allison took them to princess day at the Georgia Aquarium...
So as you can see we ALL had a great time on our "vacation." We missed the kids like crazy but it was nice to just be Trey and Kelly for a week!
