Departure Day - February 3-9 Trip Report

lvbookworm

SBH Insider
Sadly, today we go home. We set our alarm early so we could take advantage of every minute before we had to depart. While I finished "packing detail" my husband headed up to Petite Columbe to grab breakfast. Standing in line he started up a conversation with another couple admiring his newly purchased, brightly colored "L'Avion St. Barth" baseball cap. Come to find out - they were the owners of the company and asked to take his picture modeling the cap. As a thank-you they gave him a sticker with the logo printed on it, and it is now proudly displayed on his laptop computer for all to see.

After breakfast we loaded our suitcases into the car and said one final farewell to what had become home for the past week. We had a few errands to run - filling the rental car with gas, grabbing a few bottles of Léoube at Marché U (because I wasn't sure if/where we could purchase once home), and gifts of Ligne St. Barth items at the pharmacy next door. We then made our way to the beach for some relaxation before lunch. There were more than enough loungers available for rent at Pearl Beach today, but we decided to return to the rental shack next door for our chairs and umbrella.

The morning seemed to fly by and the next thing we knew it was time for lunch. We started with what has now become one of our favorite wines - a bottle of Léoube Rosé. We made a toast to our week and the blessing of being able to spend such quality time with one another.

We decided the shrimp tempura was too good to pass up and ordered some to share. I insisted on having the chicken and bacon caesar all to myself, so my husband settled on the Thai beef noodles with vegetables. Both the shrimp and caesar salad were just as good as our first visit earlier in the week. We lingered as long as we possibly could and enjoyed the music and fashion show. It was officially "Bikini Saturday" and I really liked the white and hot-pink shirts all the staff were wearing as uniforms. I hadn't yet found a suitable t-shirt souvenir for myself and was excited when the waitress told me they were for sale in the little shop at the back of the restaurant.

The volume of the music was beginning to rise, and the restaurant was taking on an exciting buzz with the steadily growing crowd. Reluctantly we paid our bill, returned to our loungers and started the dreaded countdown until we had to gather our belongings and head toward the car. We did one more walk up and down the beach, stuck our toes in the water one last time and made a promise to return just as soon as our schedule would allow. Every year we celebrate our September wedding anniversary in Maui, and as I took one last look out over the water a fleeting thought crept into my mind about making a change to this long-standing tradition.

We returned the car to the airport at 3:00 and took a few minutes to change into our travel clothes before heading to the port for our 4:00 ferry departure. After checking in with our tickets, I asked the immigrations officer if I could get a St. Barth stamp in my passport. Sadly, without looking up, he said no and immediately called for the next person in line. Well, hmmph. My husband's current passport has extra pages filled with stamps from all over the world. Mine? Mexico and SXM. So it goes.

The ferry arrived at about 3:45 and we quickly loaded and were on our way. It was sad to see Gustavia getting smaller and smaller behind us, but we reaffirmed our promise to return. After all, we didn't come anywhere close to crossing off everything on our vacation to-do list, and it would be wrong to leave a job left unfinished.

À Bientôt St Barth!
 
Day of departure is always bitter sweet, but you made the most of it for sure. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your posts all week! Hopefully, you’ll both return to our favorite isle sooner than later. Perhaps you’ll lock and load on the next trip shotly. Thanks for sharing your journey with us all!

Gayle
 
If it were I, be back in September to celebrate your anniversary. IMHO lots better than Maui
 
Safe travels home! We are headed down tomorrow so long as the weather doesn’t intervene. Just switched our connecting flight from PHL to CLT to try to mitigate it!

Sounds like you had an amazing trip!
 
If it were I, be back in September to celebrate your anniversary. IMHO lots better than Maui
Agreed. While in Maui and the other islands we kept saying " Wish we were in St. Barts. Glad we went, but no reason to return.
 
Hi Hawke,
Same for us, glad we went once, for no other reason to affirm that it does not get any better than St. Barts
 
My kids all got to Hawaii. They said I would love the birds and the flora. I am more than happy with the subjects St Barths offers me to photograph.
 
I couldn't agree more - Maui and SBH are two completely different vacation experiences. I originally pushed the idea of returning to St Barth out of my head because I didn't want to worry about hurricanes or bad weather in September. Since then (possibly from some sort of divine intervention) we had to cancel our Maui trip due to my husband's work schedule. November was our only other option so now we're actively moving forward and researching villas in SBH. The introduction of nonstop JetBlue from FLL will be a game changer for us. Hopefully that schedule will continue!
 
Anita and I go every November for my birthday, 1st week of the month. It is a glorious time to spend on the Island.
 
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