Japan travel day

     Well, this trip started off with a bit more excitement than we wanted. Two delayed flights on the first legs and one missed alarm to leave for the first leg! But, surprisingly, we all made it to our last flight ok. Abigail, Bailley, and I were on the same San Francisco to Tokyo flight and Madison was on a Vancouver to Tokyo flight landing at almost the same time.

    This was my first time in business class and boy howdy it was nice! 

    The only issue was that I needed a primer on "what to do in business class" before I got to try it. The attendant, Suzuki, knew my name as I boarded and proceeded to redo/fix everything I did for the first half of the flight... definitely a learning experience! 

    We land and deplane and meet Madison at immigration. 

    Once past immigration and the customs, we hit the only real issues so far. Getting from Narita airport to Shibuya/Shinjuku. The Skyline requires a different ticket and doesn't use Suica... so all our prepping and planning kind of hit a snag. But we finally got help, bought tickets, and after a wait got on the correct train. Thirty minute or so ride to Shinjuku then on to the local lines. 

    There, Suica in affect, we negotiated a few transfers and then a walk and we are at the apartment. The owner met us there and gave us a run down on everything. Most importantly, they gave us some ramen recommendations that were close and left a ton of Japanese snacks and candies! 

    We take a minute to regroup, then had back out for food. As we were trying to find a ramen place, we ran into the house owner, who basically hand led us to a place and showed us what to do. Well, that still wasn't enough, because we struggled a bit. At the door, you used a machine to pick what you want and it printed tickets. Then you give the cook the tickets and waited. Well, first, you couldn't select any of the meals. Oh, maybe money in first. But then the machine wouldn't take my bills. Finally my first "sumimasen"... ah, evidently you can't use a 10,000 yen bill. She gives me a 5,000 and 5 1,000 yen bills. Hmmm... won't take the 5,000 yen bill either.... oh, maybe the 1,000 right above the bill slot is telling us something. Ok, we finally get ordered and wait. Wow... the wait was worth it. Fantastic ramen in a tiny place all together. We sat, slurped, and exchanged dishes until we were all full.

    A short walk back to the apartment, get ready for bed, and crash.

St Lucia to home travel day

​Well… and just like that another vacation comes to an end.

A few last pics from the rental overlooking the pitons…

A few bites to ‘clean out’ the fridge of leftovers, then on the road to the airport. The airport can’t be more than 15 or so miles away… which is definitely an hour or more. Oddly, we have adapted to the driving so well, that the drive was pretty quiet… no constant ‘stay on the left!’ or ‘I’m not sure, but it loooooks like we should be going on the straight, left-ish road’, just drive and chat and discuss the trip. It’s weird, but the only thing I still periodically got wrong was the blinker… not that people used them a lot… but it was on the left of the steering column, and that never completely felt natural. I guess I didn’t use it enough to get that pure muscle memory. 

Bye bye trusty jimney.

On to the next trip!!!

St Lucia day 7

​Pretty chill day. Woke up and lounged a bit and made some spa reservations. Then for lunch we drove to Dasheen one last time.

Food was great, plus we even took leftovers back for later.

We, me mainly, nap a bit and then get ready for the spa. Spa was a short drive down the hill, not even into town. The girls got facials and I got a full body massage. Funny story (disclaimer: this is only my second message ever, so I know nothing on what to do). The lady takes me to where the massage tables are… basically the same view as below, over looking Soufriere and the pitons. She says undress and get on the table face down. I ask, completely undressed? Yes. She asks if it’s ok and am I ok doing it outside like this… I’m like sure, you know, when in Rome and all. So I get completely undressed and lay down on the table face down. A couple of minutes later I hear her walk back out… she touches my leg and says ‘under the sheet please’. Oh ok… ok… I could have used that info earlier, but ok. Rookie mistake I claim. 

Afterwards, we all reconvened in the bar of the resort where the spa was. 

Once dinner service opened, we ordered dishes to take back. Short drive and back to relax.

St Lucia day 6, moving day

​Today we get up and start packing up. We aay goodbye to Garvin and drive to Dasheen for an attempt at breakfast… attempt, because we were between breakfast and lunch… so denied! Alright, so just push on to the beach. Back to Malgretoute beach… but this time a rope across the road and person… hmmm. Seems due to the number of people at the resort on the beach, they weren’t letting people use their parking lot. Ok… so we pull into a little road across from Martha’s Tables and just leave the car there. There was a road/path we walked right to the beach.

We just lounged and relaxed before grabbing a late lunch on the beach. Got instructions on next house, so started driving. In Soufriere we got gas and filled up on snacks for ‘dinner’ later.

This house is more rustic for sure, but the views are something else.

St Lucia day 5

​Last full day at this rental, not sure the next place will be this nice… heck, not sure any place will be this nice. Today the plan is sulphur springs, waterfall, and boat. Should be a fun day.

Ok… up and basically cook all our breakfast stuff with some leftovers to make an omelette we all share. Got to eat while FaceTiming Madison which was great. 

We changed plans a bit, calling Garvin and just saying we’ll drive ourselves… yeah, we’ve become pretty confident, esp on our known roads. So off to a lunch reservation at Rabot Chocolat. As usual, the view is something else.

Then a short drive to the volcano and sulphur springs. We opted for the tour and mud bath instead of just mud bath. I’m glad we did… the tour was short and informational and all around great. The guide even made a reference to HEB oddly enough.

After the tour we drove and bought tickets (we were doing it in reverse due to Google Maps not being updated since some closed roads due to a hurricane). Then to mud bath. We were a bit confused… it was our first mud bath… there were pots of mud you rubbed on, then volcanic heated water pools to wash off. I had expected the pools to be filled with mud… live and learn!

A semi good rinse off, then a drive into Soufriere for a boat cruise.

Shocker… a private, sunset catamaran cruise in St Lucia is really nice. We snorkeled a bit… more live coral than I’m used to seeing… and navigated the coast past Canaries. Was a wonderful outing.

Even the drive back in the dark felt ‘not so bad’. Tomorrow is beach and moving day.

St Lucia day 4

​Up kinda late, cooking and eating breakfast here. Then on to beach!

We first tried to find a beach seemingly just south of us, but we never could find any entrance or stopping place. So… on to Malgretoute beach. It’s close to Sugar beach and has a resort on it like Sugar beach, but we were hoping for a different experience. Boy howdy it was. We drove down just beside the beach, nice parking. I walked to the hotel to ask about the lounge chairs… the lady meets me and says the restaurant is closed… enjoy yourselves! So we have a beautiful beach, shared with just a handful of people, lounge chairs, and shade from trees. Wow, we found our beach. 

We lounged a bit, the girls swam and looked at fish and coral, eventually I made a sand castle in my dad’s style. It must have been decent… the British kids beside us started doing it too. 

Around one, we packed up and walked to Martha’s Tables. Another swing and miss from the Sugar beach debacle. Food was great and we just chatted and relaxed. 

We walked back to the car and decided to drive and explore a bit more of the island. We drove to and through Soufriere and what felt like two hours to Canaries… although B says it was 30 minutes… and we still had almost an hour to get to Castries, our original goal. Man, the road north of Soufriere is nicely paved, wide, even lined(!), but so twisty and turny and up and down it was still taking us a loooong time to get anywhere. So we bail and just backtrack home. We did get some great views while stopping at stands for souvenirs.

We try to hit Massy’s but it’s closed… Boxing Day? Kwanza? So we push on with one stop for souvenirs, then another stop at Cool Joint for food before darkness falls on our trek home.

At home we eat a hodge-podge and relax but the pool. After showers I think the girls are going to watch a movie while I blog 🤓🤣.

St Lucia day 3

​Early start with plans today. 

Everybody up and out by 8:30, heading to Project Chocolat at the Rabot estate. 

First we had a good, informative tour, mostly through rain forest. Seems they graft the most disease resistant root with the best tasting upper section. It also makes a plant that produces fruit in half the time… like 2 - 4 years. A cocoa plant requires little water, 1 - 1.5 liters a year(!), and only 4 hours of sunlight a day. So they plant other trees near cocoa plants to block sunlight and absorb water. We got to chew/suck on a ripe but fresh cocoa seed… the gelatinous coating was a bit sweet. We also got to eat a native flower that tasted like green apple and saw coffee plants loaded with beans.

After the tour we got to make chocolate bars, like legit make. We used a hot mortar and a pestle to pound the cocoa nibs until it made a paste… maybe 20 minutes of continuous pounding. Then cocoa butter followed by slowly adding powdered sugar. Then 10 minutes of mixing before pouring it into a mold. They put the bars in a freezer while we ate lunch. 

Nice lunch and drinks… most things including cocoa and fresh juices. Then back to get our bars, look through the gift shop, and head out.

Oh… and Abigail drove back. Big road… and sketch road(!), all the way to the house! 

Now the girls got in the pool and we are just snacking and lounging. Probably just going to relax the rest of the day.