8 days, 7 nights at Caneel Bay

It was the perfect honeymoon — Caneel Bay in St. John (http://www.caneelbay.com/) is heaven on earth, and the kind of 5-star treatment that celebrities enjoy (Brad and Angelina were supposedly at the cottage next to ours sometime prior to our arrival, and someone said they saw Matthew McConnaughey out on a boat…”Was the guy wearing a shirt?” “No.” “It must have been him then!” We’ll take it.) We felt like we were in a dream the entire time…with the ocean just steps from our room, deer and wild donkeys roaming the grounds of the protected wildlife preserve where the resort is located), unbelievably blue ocean, perfect weather, and such great fish and fruit that we felt super-energized. I could go on and on, but you have to experience it for yourself. Seriously. I’ve been to many island resorts, and this one is by far the best I’ve ever experienced…and to get to share it with my husband, my best friend? Priceless.

Okay, some insider stories from our honeymoon that won’t appear in any magazine features on our trip:
* Joe goes snorkeling and sees angel fish and rainbow fish. I go snorkeling and come face to face with a barracuda. We also passed over a stingray or two. I preferred to watch the fish from the dock from that point on. 🙂
* I SO wanted to see a dolphin that I thought *everything* in the ocean was one. “Dolphin!” I would yell out over breakfast overlooking the bay, and Joe would shake his head and say, “No, that’s a person snorkeling.” or “No, that’s a rock.”
* We saw a donkey that was very excited to see us.
* Add banana and Baileys to a pina colada and you get something very, very good.
* Don’t wear Keds if you’re going hiking after it rains. But do play in the sprinklers if you can.
* Get an underwater camera.

We had so many adventures together — it was my first time kayaking, Joe went scuba diving, we hiked — that there wasn’t one day where we just lounged on the beach. We could do that anywhere. Caneel Bay offers so much beauty and the best massage I’ve ever had in my life, that we didn’t want to miss a moment. Stay tuned for my feature article on this resort. We’re going back for our anniversary next year, and probably every year after that. I quote Joe: “This place just gets more beautiful every day.” How did we ever vacation elsewhere?