Ok, where did I leave off? We followed the gal from Windspree to our villa- Casa de Suenos (Dream House) the villa is overlooking John's Folly and it took 10 minutes from Coral Bay to get there. On the way there when we got close, you could see the villa from the road. It was really incredible to finally see it after only seeing pictures on the web for a year. wow!!! We pulled in and the cleaning ladies were still there. The way the villa was situated was you parked above the house and walked down a set of stairs to the entry. The laundry "room" was outside which was cool, in it's own closet. We left all the baggage outside and the kids and I went and sat outside, taking in the incredibly gorgeous view of LeDuck, Norman Island and the BVI's in the distance. The other adults headed back to town to do a food shop. The cleaning ladies finished up about an hour later and I started to explore the house. There are 4 bedrooms, each with its own bath, in the villa. 2 bedrooms up and 2 bedrooms down, the lower level bedrooms had to be accessed outside, there was no entry into the main house. One was off the pool deck and the other at the other end of the house. The kids would be in these bedrooms and at first I was concerned incase one the kids wanted to find us in the middle of the night, but the kids are very happy with the set up and as it turned out we all slept like rocks and we all felt very safe. We put the 3 girls in one of the bedrooms and my boys in the other. The entire villa was furnished beautifully with dark mahogany furniture, an incredible kitchen, tilework throughout. The outside area consisted of a huge tiled deck with chaise lounges, and staircases leading down to each bedroom and the pool deck. There is also a guest house next to the pool but we weren't using that. Each bathroom had double vanities and these really neat indoor/outdoor showers that were huge and had "windows" cut into the walls so the outside was right there. The master bath shower was the best, tho, the shower had no ceiling, you looked right at the sky, and the view from the shower was of the beautiful water. I couldn't believe how blessed we were to have picked this beautiful house.(and I kept pinching myself!) The kitchen, dining area and living area were one big great room with lots of fans and big windows overlooking the water. I could go on and on (as you see!) Back to the report! After the others got back from the store, we all unpacked, put on some reggae music, and started dinner which was a real easy "truck driver" pasta, salad and bread. We all sat outside after and sighed and smiled alot. We went to bed early since we were pretty exhausted. Oh, did I mention all the pillow top beds in the house? Divine. I slept so well this entire trip! We awoke the next morning to an incredible sunrise, everyone got up at different times between 6:30 and 9:30, had leisurely breakfasts, sat outside, swam in the pool, read our books, etc. We decided to take it easy today and just chill around the house. We cooked some jerk chicken on the grill for dinner, drank alot of rum and again retired early. On Monday, we decided to go to Salt Pond Bay. We hung out around the house all morning, packed up the coolers with sandwiches, sodas and snacks and drove the 2 miles to Salt Pond Bay- The hike down to the beach was interesting and I wondered how it would feel on the way back. We decided to take a hike to Drunk Bay and that was really incredible; all those coral "people" were so funny. We made a few of our own, took some pictures, and headed back past smelly Salt Pond to the beach. Some of us snorkeled but they thought Cinnamon was better. We packed up around 4:30; hiked back up to the parking area (UGGGHH!) and headed home; showered and treated ourselves to dinner out at Skinny Legs. A lot of fun, it was movie night, crowded but the service and food were great. Shopped a bit after, then home to some star gazing and bed. Tuesday we decided to drive over to Francis Bay. Wow, this was by far my favorite beach. Quiet, secluded and the water was incredible. We spent the afternoon here, we brought coolers with lunch and lucked out and got a picnic table with lots of shade to hang out in. Did some snorkeling, read, took a nap. My favorite type of day. On the way home we stopped at the "Smoothie Stand" which came highly recommended by more than a few people. They were pretty busy but well worth the wait. Headed home after that, cooked up a nice Paella with shrimp, fish and andouille sausage, a nice bottle of wine and some moon gazing. What a perfect day. On Wednesday, mid-morning, we decided to do the hike to Ram Head. We packed waters, donned our sneakers, and headed out about 10:30. In retrospect, we should have done this first thing in the morning. It was extremely hot and arid onthe walk, but well worth it. It took us about 1.5 hours to make the hike out there, taking a few water breaks along the way. What a great spot! We stayed for about 20 minutes, taking more pictures and drinking a lot of water! The hike back was a little quicker but I was in bad shape once we hit Salt Pond Bay and had a bit of a hard time getting back up that last hill to the parking area (again!!) We headed home for some pool time and then a late lunch at Skinny Legs. Our kids clamoured for Skinny Legs nonstop. They just loved it. We played some horseshoes, had lunch and relaxed. The kids got in the habit of playing cards during this trip which was great- minimal tv was watched (only 1 in the villa and no one seemed interested except in the Mets game and American Idol!) It was great seeing the kids just hanging out and playing cards, reading, swimming, etc. I don't think any of them complained or whined the whole trip (except when we had to leave and then we all whined 🙂 ) They were fantastic. On Thursday we went into Cruz Bay for lunch at the deli in Mongoose Junction; nice people and great sandwiches, then headed over to the Calypso Catamaran for an afternoon snorkel sail to St. James Island. It was fantastic, crew was knowledgeable and funny, and they make kick butt Painkillers for the sail back. We decided to mini golf at Pastory Gardens which we all really enjoyed- the best mini golf I've ever played- it started downpouring at around the 15th hole so we headed back to the villa. We showered and contemplated dinner. hmmmm The rain stopped, clouds cleared and the full moon was out, so we headed to Miss Lucy's Full Moon Pig Roast. Live music, dancing, great food. another great night. Our last day, Friday, boo hoo. I am starting to get depressed. very depressed. It rained so hard that morning that I thought we were going to slide down the hillside into John's Folly. It stopped mid-morning and the sun came out!! Yay!! I wanted to go to Hawksnest for our final beach day but majority ruled that it was Trunk Bay Day. Ok, fine. We lucked out and got a couple of parking places and headed down to the beach. I love the facilities here, very clean and nice, and the beach itself is lovely but....... TOO MANY PEOPLE!! We had to sit on top of people (which I hate hate hate to do) and then day trippers from the cruise ships sat on top of us. Again, lovely beach but far too many people. I guess Hawksnest will have to wait until next time!! We stayed at Trunk until 5:15, then headed back and showered and decided to go to Shipwreck Landing for our last night. Food and service were excellent!! The guys arranged birthday cake and candles for the 40 year old beach babes (ha ha) and we had a great time. Back to the villa around 10:30; popped some champagne and sat outside for our last night. Where did our time go? So fast!! We were up and attem early on Saturday to make the 10:00 am ferry, then our 1 pm flight back to NY. The only consolation was that it was 81 in NY when we landed!!
We had an incredible trip and I would like to thank everyone on this board who provided a wealth of information that was very useful. Here is a link to my Shutterfly pictures if anyone is interested in viewing. Thanks for listening!!!
Jackie
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8Abs2bZu4bs2GM