Bicycles in the Virgin Islands, Part 1 (BVI)

You may recall that we decided to spend our honeymoon in the Virgin Islands, splitting our time between the British Virgin Islands (Scrub Island) and the US Virgin Islands (St. Thomas).  It was quite an adventure and a good mix of relaxation, exploration, and eating.  Lots of eating.  Without further ado, I present to you the first part of the Bicycle honeymoon!

Our wedding was on a Saturday in Savannah and we decided to fly out from Savannah instead of driving back to Tallahassee.  We rented a car in Tallahassee and returned it in Savannah, which was perfect.  We left early Monday morning so we could have Sunday to relax and spend time with guests who were sticking around.  On Sunday we woke up early, went to our favorite Savannah coffee shop (The Coffee Fox), and spent the afternoon watching the Saints win with some friends.  Perfection. 

We woke up very early for our 7 AM flight and checked in with little trouble.  Seated in first class, we were greeted with some fizzy beverages.

Of course we had to show off our new accessories!

We flew from Savannah to Atlanta, where we spent a short layover eating breakfast burritos, the same thing we did on our engagemoon layover.  Our flight to St. Thomas was about three hours, two of which were spent watching "Love Actually" for the first time.  In related news, why did I wait so long to watch that movie?!  When we landed we were greeted by the local sights:

I will go into more detail about logistics in my honeymoon wrap-up post but long story short: It is difficult to get to Scrub Island.  We decided that hey, this is our honeymoon!  Let's take a helicopter to get there!  Best.  Decision.  Ever.  We grabbed our bags, walked to the back of the airport, and watched as our ride arrived.

 I am normally afraid of heights but for some reason this didn't really scare me.

Is that excitement or fear?

Our Caribbean Buzz pilot, Jerry, was super nice and helpful, pointing out major landmarks as we passed above.

Once we got out of the main part of St. Thomas it was nothing but water and private islands.

Since we were traveling from US soil to British soil, we needed to pass through customs on Beef Island/Tortola before heading to Scrub Island.  We were the only non-employees at the airport, which was weird but convenient.  We used this opportunity for a photo with the helicopter.

We continued on to Scrub Island and Jerry toured us around the island before landing on Scrub's helicopter pad.

We were greeted by a van that took us to the front desk, where rum punch was served as we checked in.  We had a one bedroom suite that overlooked the marina.

They knew we were honeymooners so we were greeted in our room by a bottle of champagne.

We arrived at about 3 PM and spent the afternoon sipping cocktails in the pool and relaxing.  Dinner that night was a Caribbean buffet at one of the two on-property restaurants, Tierra! Tierra!  We called it a night pretty early since we had been traveling all day and needed to be up (relatively) early for an adventure the next day!

Scrub Island has a relationship with Dive BVI and there was a day-long island hopper snorkel tour happening the first full day we were there.  We signed up weeks before we actually got there and simply had to check in the morning of the tour to get our gear.  The tour stopped at a few different snorkel spots before hitting up a boat for lunch.  Willy T's is unlike anything I have ever experienced before.  It is a restaurant on boat in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere.

This place had wifi, I kid you not.

My lunch was amazing and it seemed like everyone from our group loved theirs as well.  We got there early enough to avoid the rumored rush and left relatively quickly so we could have as much time as possible on Jost van Dyke, a small island that is home to the Soggy Dollar Bar.  It is called the Soggy Dollar Bar because you have to swim to shore to get there.  They claim to be the birthplace of the famous "painkiller" drink, so of course our group had to try some.

The gentleman with a bee instead of a face is someone we called Doctor Dave.  You see, Doctor Dave is a doctor in Michigan or somewhere cold like that.  He and his partner were on vacation in the BVI and they took this opportunity to really let loose.  The boat had rum punch and beer so some people were already feeling great before we got to Jost van Dyke.  Then the painkillers started flowing.  And flowing...  Let's just say the boat ride back was... interesting.  I get sea sick so I knew I needed to be careful throughout this voyage.  Seeing a very sick Doctor Dave made me grateful I wasn't in his shoes.  Don't get me wrong, I can say with confidence those painkillers were delicious ;)

We got back to Scrub around 4 PM and then relaxed by the pool with some of our new friends from the boat.  We met up with some of them for a casual dinner and again went to bed relatively early because we were pretty worn out.

The next day we spent very lazy - spa treatments in the morning, lazing by the beach all afternoon.

 Most of our friends from the boat were joining us at a pig roast that evening, a fun prospect for someone who doesn't eat pork (this girl!).  It was actually a lot of fun and there was plenty aside from the headed pig that I could eat.  We loved every minute on Scrub Island but it was finally time to head to our next destination the following day.

Up next, we make the harrowing journey back to St. Thomas and miss Jerry and his helicopter quite a bit.

All photos personal.