The In-Laws Pay a Visit to the Rock

Matthew's mom, dad, and sister flew into St. Kitts on February 25th, and they left on March 4th. I think that, ideally, they wanted a relaxing and low maintenance vacation. I'd say they received the opposite...

They arrived on Friday, and after hunting them down at the Marriott, we found them at the Pizza Shack. We were really excited to see them, and it was so comforting to see familiar faces. Since their plane came in at about 4:00 p.m., we didn't plan to do anything that night because they were pretty exhausted. They had driven to Chicago on Thursday and boarded their flight at 5:00 a.m. Friday morning. However, Matthew and I were able to persuade his sister, Nicole, to go out with us. As you might know from previous posts, Fridays tend to be the night to go out; we just couldn't let Nicole miss out on a typical Friday night on the island. So after we dined on a couple of pizzas in their hotel room, we headed to The Strip.

When we arrived, we skipped Ziggy's because it was completely dead, and we walked down to Elvis'. There, we found a small grouping that hadn't left the beach since volleyball earlier that afternoon. Usually people will hang out for a while after the volleyball matches, but eventually, they head home, change, and return to The Strip. This grouping, however, never left, and didn't seem to have plans to leave any time soon. Thus, we found our entertainment for the early evening hours. We ended up staying at Elvis' until the wee hours of the morning; we had a blast!

Nicole and Matthew

Our friends: Taylor, Emily, Ryan, and Brittany.

Eventually, we became the entertainment...it happens.

On Saturday, we took Matthew's family to a beach called Shipwreck. We spent most of the afternoon there. We snorkeled a little bit and soaked up some sun. Unfortunately, we were given terrible service at the restaurant, and the food wasn't that great. Also---they only accept cash. For being a tourist hot spot, you'd think they'd accept credit/debit cards too.

Sunday was a funday! We went charter fishing on the Caribbean side of the island. Nicole reeled in a King Fish and I reeled in a Black Finn Tuna. We also saw dolphins, which made the trip for me. They were racing our boat and showing off. It was amazing! When the trip was over, we took our fish home. Mathew prepared us a delicious fish dinner and we all sat around talking about the day, while eating our fill of yumminess.

Fish on!

View of St. Kitts from our boat.

Our fish. :)

Monday was a day full of sightseeing. We took the clan on a tour to see Ross University's campus, Caribelle Batik, Brimstone Fortress, and we drove them around the entire island.

What I really liked about the Ross tour was that Matthew brought us down to an area on campus that had a path which lead to the coast. It was called, Stairway to the Sea. I had never been down there, so it was a treat for me too.

Beautiful rocky beach sprinkled with conch shells. 

At the bottom of the stairway was this gazebo-like structure. Great little hideaway.

Our next stop was at the Caribelle Batik, which is located at the historic Romney Manor. I had never been to this place before, and was ecstatic that we'd be visiting. The little store creates their own wall hangings, clothing, and accessories using an interesting process involving dying and waxing. The grounds of Romney Manor are also very beautiful. For more information check out this link: http://www.caribellebatikstkitts.com/

Some of the products inside of the Batik.

A 400 + year old tree on the grounds of Romney Manor.

After we finished strolling through the botanical gardens of Romney Manor and doing a little shopping, we hopped back into our car, and began the drive to Brimstone Fortress. According to http://www.brimstonehillfortress.org/, the Fortress was constructed intermittently between the 1690s and 1790s, is of singular importance as being the remains of a large, complete military community of the 18th century. As such, it is a veritable time capsule of international significance.

Matty's fam seemed to really enjoy the fortress—who wouldn't? It's an amazing place to visit and it holds a lot of history for St. Kitts. We concluded the day with a drive all the way around the rest of the island, which didn't take too long. Haha. Remember, St. Kitts is twenty-eight miles long and five miles wide (at its longest and widest points).

Tuesday was a lazy day. Matt went back to school, and it was up to me to entertain the fam. I met them at the Marriott around 1 p.m. and we headed to Port Zante to do a little tourist shopping. While there, Nicole was able to take a photo with a few of the Green Vervet monkeys.

On Wednesday, I brought them to Whitehouse Bay, off of Christophe Harbour to do a little snorkeling. Although I was able to show them a shipwreck, it wasn't very sunny and the water was atypically chilly for an afternoon in the Caribbean. We cut the trip short due to eerie feelings of being in dark water. HAHA. On the way home, we made a pit stop at Timothy's Beach to look for shells and to relax. By that time, the sun decided to come out.

Thursday involved a trip to the IGA, our local grocery store. One thing I really liked about his family visiting us, was that they were able to do "touristy" sightseeing, as well as get a small taste of what it's like to actually live in St. Kitts. We didn't shield them from the shacks, questionable scents from downtown, insanely high prices for groceries, crazy/risky/dangerous drivers, etc.

On Friday, they flew back to the US. Of course the transmission went out on my car on the way to the airport. Oh, and our battery was stolen while the car was on the side of the road before our mechanic could tow it to his place. However, they didn't miss their flight and they arrived home all in one piece.