Sibling Reunion in St. Kitts and Nevis

Sibling Reunion in St. Kitts and Nevis

Before I begin the tale of this Gabrielsen Sibling Reunion, I want to say that it was not complete without Kay and Ken.  They are currently serving a mission in Tsuruoka, Japan.  We are all so very proud of them and the wonderful work they are doing there with the branch they serve in.  They reach out to all the less actives, the young missionaries they serve with, and to everyone they meet.  Tsuruoka will never be the same; and that is especially true of their branch.  Kay has brought the gift of music and they both have added the spark of love and friendship!   We love you Kay and Ken and wish you godspeed in your most important work!

You are our heroes!

Our "reunion" actually began in the Miami airport where we boarded a flight to St. Kitts.  After passing through immigration and customs, we took a short taxi ride to our hotel and began to settle in. 

When we heard that they were serving free smoothies near one of the pools - we were there!  We had our choice of mango, banana, pina colada and strawberry - they were delicious!

On the trip from the airport, we had noticed a restaurant that was within walking distance of our hotel that featured lobster; so, that sounded like the perfect place for our first meal on the island!

The food was delicious!

Here are some pictures of our condo and areas surrounding:

This picture shows Pam in the foreground and the hotel in the background.  

These photos show our condo area and the gorgeous views of the ocean that we enjoyed!

This is the beach area with the condos and hotel in the background.

We spent some happy hours relaxing in the beach cabanas and watching and listening to the ocean.  We also spent some hours in the incredibly warm Atlantic ocean water, as our condos were on the Atlantic side of the island.

We also spent lots of time relaxing by the pool.

You can see Joan's pretty "BYU Blue" toenails!

Information about Saint Kitts and Nevis:

The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis is a two island country in the West Indies.  It is the smallest state in the Americas in both area and population.  The country is a Commonwealth Realm, with the British monarch as Head of State.

Day 2

Bathing beauties trying to avoid the sun!

Enjoying lunch at the beach side grill

After lunch, our tour guide - John - took us on a walking tour of downtown Basseterre.  He had studied up on the history of the island and the "not to miss" sights of the city.

John leads the tour!

 Pam and Patty in front of the fountain on Independence Square ( formerly the site of the Slave Market).  Saint Kitts has a sad history of slave labor that was used to work the sugar plantations which once covered the island.

 It was fun to see the cute and colorful people of the city!

Our tour guide shows us and tells us about this old historic church in the city.

 We followed our noses (and our guide) to the many sidewalk grills and food vendor shops.

 It was fun to see how quickly they could clean up a coconut.

Of course John had to sample a "Johnny Cake" and he was good to share with all of us!

Monkeys were a common sight on the island. (Hopefully this doesn't include us!)

 We then spent some time exploring some of the shops and looking around the city.  Pam, Roger and I stepped into this very busy local supermarket for an island shopping experience! 

After watching an interesting local parade, we ate dinner at Lemongrass Restaurant.  We took turns with couples scouting out and choosing where we would eat dinner each evening.  John and Cindy found this Thai restaurant and the food was delicious!

Cindy and I both ordered the house made ginger beer (don't worry, it was totally non-alcoholic) but, it was super charged with fresh ginger.  Grandma Peterson would say "its good for what ails you!"  The picture below shows my reaction to a sip of the drink.

The very best part of this meal was the yummy ice cream we had for dessert - rum rain and coconut (it doesn't get any better than that!)!!

Day 3

Of course golfing was a part of the trip for the guys, and the heat and humidity didn't seem to even slow them down.  Some of the days, they golfed 36 holes!

Pam and Roger look so cute in the hotel lobby and ready to go out for dinner!

Tom and Joan found our restaurant for the third evening on the island.  This was at a place on what the locals called "The Strip" - down near the water's edge.

 We ate outside near the beach, and the food was great!

I thought that this was an awesome picture of John and Cindy.

Day 4

Day four was Sunday, and we attended church in the local branch.  The meetings were awesome with one of the best Sunday School classes I have ever attended!

After church, we loaded into a van and began our drive around the island.

 We saw so many interesting and beautiful sights.  This nesting area for the snowy egrets was awesome and made me think about Ken and how excited he would be to see this.

We had to stop to see and photograph this very, very, very steep driveway!

 This photo shows petroglyphs left by the original inhabitants of St. Kitts.

We traveled up Brimstone Hill and then made the climb to the top of the fortress on foot.  This fort was designed by British military architects, built by African slaves, and dates back to 1699.  Once known as the "Gibraltar of the West Indies",  it has a long and colorful history of battles between the English and the French for control of the sugar cane industry on the island and nearby Nevis.
You can see Nevis from the top of Brimstone Hill in the photo below.

 The views from the top made the climb up well worth it!

We passed through this narrow stone archway on our drive down Brimstone Hill and traveled then to an old sugar mill.

 Tour guide - John

 Inside the "firing tunnel", where the cane was burned.

We saw lots of goats, beautiful flowers and lush greenery.

We continued our drive and were treated to many beautiful overlooks to the ocean.

Cute picture of Tom and Joan!

 

 You can see the Marriott resort in this photo.

This picture shows the Caribbean ocean on the right and the Atlantic ocean on the left.  Saint Kitts is truly a beautiful island!

After our drive, we went back to "The Strip" (where we had eaten the evening before) to have dinner at a restaurant that featured an island buffet.  We relaxed and watched a gorgeous sunset while we waited for the buffet to begin.

 The food was delicious!

It was fun to sample "Kittian" food: ribs, fish, jerk chicken, rice & beans, salads and fruit and a yummy breadfruit casserole!

 Day 5

For dinner that night we ate at Chinchillas which served seafood and other dishes with a Mexican flair.  Once again, the food was yummy - we really did not have any food that wasn't good on this trip!

Day 6

Day 6 was "Sister Shopping" Day and we really missed Kay!  We found a perfume shop and all bought perfume.  I think people could smell us coming after that!
Then, we went grocery shopping and bought hamburgers and fixins for dinner.  We also bought chips and ice cream and cookies for dessert - all for less than $45!  Roger barbecued the burgers and we enjoyed dinner "in" that night.

Day 7

Happy Birthday Hal! - October 26th

For Hal's birthday we went shopping again and found a bamboo shirt and a St. Kitt's t-shirt for him.  That evening we ate at an Indian Restaurant and the food was really good!

Our cute chef came out to help us order and to see if everything was good!

Day 8
The next day, John, Cindy, Tom and Joan took the ferry to Nevis to see that island.

 After finding just the right cab driver, they saw some beautiful and interesting scenery and had an island lunch adventure!

Pam and I visited the hotel spa where we spent some time in the hot tub and then enjoyed massages.  I think that spa was the nicest spa I have ever visited!

That night for dinner, we went to the Sweet Cane restaurant and enjoyed fresh fish and conch fritters.

Day 9

Golfing was on the agenda for the guys, and  John , Roger and Hal golfed 36 holes!

That evening, we returned to "The Strip" and went to Cathy's where the food was probably the best we had on the island.

This is one of the cooks who worked in the tiny little kitchen and put out such delicious food!

Day 10

Our last day on St. Kitts was spent in the ocean, at the pool and for dinner we went to an Italian restaurant that was within walking distance of our resort.  The food was really excellent!

So ended another great trip and wonderful time together!