St Barths, Part III

This is one of those posts where I feel like,

"Wow, I can't believe it's been a month since our trip!"

and at the same time also,

"Geez, That feels like a year ago!"

Weird, right?

Anyway, Here is my final recap from our fabulous time on St. Barths!

--
Day 5: Tuesday 12/1/15

When planning our trip, I made sure to arrange the dates so that my 30th Birthday would be a full day on island, not traveling in any way.  

After swinging by the airport to book our departure flight we decided to hike to Colombier Beach.  Colombier Beach is only accessible by boat or by about an hour long hike.

Here is a view of the island from the start of our hike.

Now, in my research I had read that the hike was not a leisurely stroll.

I had no idea what an understatement that would be. 

The hike is extremely difficult- rocky, slick, steep downhill. 

Don't let these charming stone steps fool you.

They eventually lead to a jagged torture slope.

 

We decided about half way down (once the thong of my flip flop began to give way) that we would not be able to make it back to our car considering the walk back would be entirely uphill. 

I'm stressing the difficulty in my description here because I did not read any such comments.  I read things like "Perfect for a picnic lunch" and "beautiful views" and I just wish I had been prepared for the intense reality.

We stopped for a while at this rock formation to take in "the beach" and then made our way back.

  Being the birthday girl, I declared that the only additional exertion of my day would be blowing up my pink tube and wading into the water at St. Jean.
And so it was: Later on we got dressed up for our last night out!

I had been saving this dress to wear on vacation because it's a little more va va voom than I usually wear.

We had a little photo shoot at the cottage before heading out and this one made me laugh. Gotta love a good self timer snafu!

 

 

That night we had dinner reservations at Bonito.

 This was the most gorgeous restaurant I have ever been to! Stunning views:

K arranged for a little birthday surprise after dinner: 

 

Bonito was one of the highlights of our vacation and I would say that it is not to be missed if you find yourself on St. Barths. 
It was the biggest cherry on top of our trip!

--

Day 6: Wednesday 12/2/15

On Wednesday we packed up and bid adieu to our cottage.

 I loved seeing all of the different languages in the guest book:

 We grabbed breakfast at the bakery before turning in our rental car. 

This man deserves a medal for driving us around safely the entire trip:  And then it was time to go...

Our trip home was utterly exhausting.
We were the people running on the moving sidewalk in Charlotte.
While unpacking Alfie proclaimed there will be no more vacations without him:

 

And Voilà! Our St. Barths vacation.

(links to Part I and Part II)