Hello Hello! I hope you had a wonderful weekend!! I had a really productive weekend. I got caught up on all my laundry [why I have so much when I don’t go anywhere is beyond me lol]. I cleaned the house + deep cleaned my room to get ready to rearrange things, I’m so excited!! I’m bringing in an antique corner hutch that belonged to my late Aunt, and I’m so exited to have something of hers. I also went through a bunch of my stuff and found so much stuff to get rid of + donate. It feels much lighter now and I love that feeling. I did a fall cleaning of sorts ha! My closet + dresser are next for a deep clean! Anyway, I digress.
Today’s post is all about one of my favorite places: St. Thomas with one of my favorite people: Meg.
[The first of many airport selfies on our way to St. Thomas]
Meg + I met in college eleven years ago [I can’t believe we are as old as we are ha!] in a large lecture class, Cultural Communications I believe. We are incredibly close now that I call her the little sister I never wanted ha! But it didn’t start out that way believe it or not.
We were opposites then + its still true today. I showed up dressed in jeans, a tee shirt, make up + jewelry on and carrying my designer tote. Meg was sitting against the wall in sweats with her hoodie pulled up over her head looking like she wanted to be anywhere but in class lol. It looked like she was there early for class while I was running in just as class started lol That is still true today. Meg is always early + I’m always running at least 15 minutes late, part of my charm I tell her ha! Meg lived on campus and I commuted. Meg is more reserved when meeting new people where I’m like, “hey let’s get together soon!” right after we met. [As I got older I mellowed on this ha! I need my alone time now haha] Because we were so different Meg was a little hesitant to get to know me but I eventually won her over and now she can’t live without me ha! [I can just imagine the face she’s making + the thoughts running threw her head as she reads this haha]
Through the years Meg + I have been through a lot of life’s up + downs, from deaths of loved ones, break ups, finding my person, traveling + exploring new places, so many job changes, being each other’s cheerleader + support system. I can honestly say that I could not have gotten through some of life’s punches without her. She has always had my back, always there for me when I needed someone to either listen to me vent or just hangout and do nothing but veg in front of the tv + eat comfort food.
She is one of the most thoughtful people I know and has a big heart of gold! She always tries to make things better for you, in any way she can. When its her birthday she wants it very low key and not a big deal. But for other people’s birthday she goes all out to make you feel special + celebrated. She has a wicked sense of humor, super smart, and is very down to earth, goes with the flow which works for us because as much as I go with the flow, I’m a control freak haha She’s always down for trips to target or to go down to Kelly Drive to walk + take pictures. She puts everyone’s needs before her own and I feel like you don’t find that in a lot of people these days which is a shame.
[This is in Newport, Rhode Island where Meg surprised me with a long weekend for my birthday in November 2018]
Our friendship works because we are opposites. We always joke that I dress her + she feeds me because I am horrible in the kitchen. I mean I set the stove on fire, not once, but twice in the same night 🤦🏻♀️ and I’m very into fashion + clothes where Meg isn’t. We love to travel + explore new places and capture awesome pictures. We love to watch sports + go to games but she’s a PA fan where I’m an NY fan. That’s made things interesting ha! As much as we are opposites, we do have things in common. We are both pretty chill and just want to have a good time. We both love + need our alone time, and when we are together, since we’ve been friends for so long we just know what the other is thinking or wants to do ya know?
When it comes to traveling, Meg gravitates more towards mountain + cooler weather places where I go straight for a tropical island. Give me all sun, white sand beaches, crystal clear water and PALM TRESS!!! It’s actually comical on how we choose the destinations we travel to. When we picked St. Thomas, before we fell on it, we researched Maine. Vermont, New York, South Carolina, Florid, Texas, California, Washington State + Oregon. It took so long to finally stumble upon St. Thomas. Once we did though, it was a no brainer + we booked our trip pretty quickly. Whenever we go, we always research it. I usually find the hotel, prime photography stops + most popular “must dos” oh and of course shopping lol Meg looks for the best restaurants and food places, how we’ll get there and if we need a car when we get there, and generally the best places to relax. We both love to immerse ourself in the culture so we both look for places we can do that.
A lot of times the places I’ll find are the same that Meg did too. I’ll put all the places we each find with the address and then send it to Meg so we both have it. Once we are at our destination every day we’ll wake up, see how the other is feeling and plan out the day that way. We might do a lot of the things on the list, or we might not do any. Thats what’s so nice about us traveling together, we just go with the flow and its usually the same thing for each other us.
If you ask each of us what our favorite place we’ve been we will both say St. Thomas. It is such a gorgeous island, a USA territory so its great when your passport expired and you don’t want to pay the expedited fees [thats happened to us ha!], the people are so friendly there and the food is so good!
[The view off the balcony of the room]
We stayed at Bolongo Bay resort and we both would stay there again. The staff was super friendly + accommodating and the food was amazing! We ate pretty much ever meal at the hotel and I got the same thing every time lol.
[This is the chicken sandwich with lettuce, pickles + bacon with a secret sauce and a side of fries I had every time we ate the hotel]
[This is the view from Iggies’s Beach Bar and Grill, the hotel’s restaurant]
We had so much fun exploring the Island and taking pictures. We went to 99 steps which I ran up twice because the first time we didn’t realize that, thats what it was ha! We also went to Blackbeard’s castle which is on the way from 99 Steps. When we came down from 99 Steps we ended up in the middle of what we called Diamond District because it was all jewelry stores. One store got us to come in and Meg ended up buying something for a gift and I treated myself to a ring.
[This is 99 Steps]
[This is Blackbeard’s Castle. Unfortunately this was as good of a photo as I could get as it was under construction]
[This is the ring I treated myself to]
After went went exploring we went back to the hotel and were hott and gross [the weather was so nice but it was humid] so we decided to go swimming. The hotel has two trampoline kinda devices that you can sit in and we went and hung out on them. The water was kinda cold when you first went in but once you’re in its really nice. We had a lot of fun playing on this thing, it was like we were kids again. I think this trip as the most relaxed we’ve ever been on a vacation.
[View of the trampoline thingies from the beach]
[Selfie in the Ocean. Can you spot Meg? It’s kinda funny but out in the middle of the ocean was where I had the best service on my phone lol]
[This is the view from the ocean of Bolongo Bay’s pool and Iggies Bar and Grill]
On our last full day we ended up signing up for a snorkeling cruise through the hotel around St. Thomas and St. John. It was magical! We had so much fun! We met a bunch of super nice people and the crew on the boat was awesome! For whatever reason our phones didn’t work underwater to take pictures and videos but it was so cool! Before we left we both purchased full face snorkel masks so we didn’t have to use the communal ones that the tour offered, and if we wanted to go on our own we could. I loved mine and so did Meg. We both started at the same place but we each followed a fish and got lost in the underwater world. I kinda felt like Ariel from the Little Mermaid ha!
[This is on the boat that took us snorkeling in St. Thomas + St. John
[This is my favorite picture of us. We were laughing so hard because we were about to get taken out by a wave at St. John]
The boat ride was awesome and super long lol We were gone from 9AM to 3:30PM and lunch was included. I ended up getting really sea sick and slept the two hours it took to get back to St. Thomas. Meg and I both got BURNT so bad and didn’t realize it until we got back to our room ha! When we got back to the room Meg ended up taking a nap for a little and I hung out on the balcony, hoping the fresh would make me not feeling sea sick, took pictures and just relaxed, it was glorious. We went down to Iggie’s for our final dinner and ended up taking it back to the room because we were just miserable. We ate our dinner in bed in front of the TV and it was awesome.
[This was at Iggie’s waiting for our dinner on the last night in St. Thomas]
I woke up the next morning way early thanks to my sun burn and went and took some more pictures before I had to shower and get ready to leave. We had a late flight and were going to go into town for lunch + explore before going to the air port. I let Meg sleep in. I know I’m such a good friend haha!
[This was on the beach outside the room]
We explored a little more, bought hook bracelets that are hand made and popular to St. Thomas and some more souvenirs and headed to the airport. We got their fairly early and just hung out at the gate.
[I took this as we were walking up the steps into the plane. I didn’t mean to have it on portrait mode but I was in a hurry lol]
[After 12 hours of traveling we were done! This was when we landed at home and could not get off the plane fast enough!]
Thanks for being one of my best people Meg! I’ll never be able to thank you for all you do, have done, and will do for me in the future!! I hope everyone has a friend like Meg 💖
Wow I think this is my longest post ever ha! Thank you for being here it means so much!! You can follow me on Instagram: @jennniferlynn11 and Pinterest: @jennniferlynn11.
Always Sparkle and Shine Bright…
xoxo,
Jen