Day One: Close to Belonging

Candica, Heidi, Marti and I met very early this morning at the airport because our flight was at 7am. Boy was I tired and my eyelids were heavy but once the girls got there my spirit was lifted! The flights were both on time and super easy and by 12:30pm we were on the Island. And that is when our journey truly began...

We breezed through customs where we learned the term "belongers." It is an interesting way to describe a local. So our mission is to be the belongers this week! Another thing we learned was that here on the Island they drive on the opposite side of the road...AND they have traffic circles which made all four of our heads spin. I mean all instincts tell you to look left then right, it is hard to push reset on your brain! But that is the point of a vacation, right?

Once at the hotel, we changed into our suits and headed down the beach. This island is incredible, powder white sand, crystal turquoise water and sunsets that will change your life. We went to The Palms for lunch and had such a great time. It was refreshing to be with three strong women who are all so dynamic, but that have so much in common! We then jumped into the infinity pool and got our first taste of the water...stick to bottles. We decided to head back a few hours later and much to surprise we ran into a man cutting coconuts on the beach! They were filled (of course) with the most delicious and cold coconut water. Talk about fresh! The kicker was that our friendly "belonger" added a shot of vodka to sweeten the beverage. Whoa, was it good. He must have known these girls love to drink and drink we did! Another thing you should know about our group is that we love to make new friends on the beach, in the pool, at meals, etc. One we got back to the hotel, some of the other guests wanted to know where our giant coconuts came from and when we ran into one couple later that night at our inaugural dinner at Hemingways, they called us the coconut girls...a nickname was born!

We split up into teams to tackle the important stuff - Heidi and Marti took off to experience the local grocery situation and Candi and I hit the beach! Once they returned from the venture with all the spoils of the island, I made some delicious dark and stormy's and we toasted to a fabulous vacation. More to come!