Costa d'Este!

 After a wonderful visit to the West Indies last week and then coming home to snow and below freezing weather, we are already looking for a beach get-away trip in January.  This is Black Friday weekend and tomorrow is Cyber Monday.

Our favorite Villa in Florida, the Costa d'Este is running a promotion of up to 40% off.  So yesterday we booked our flights to Florida and will be staying at the Costa d'Este January 21-26, 2024. We discovered Vero Beach 4 years ago and this will be our third visit.  Owners, Gloria and Emilio Estefan have brought Miami's chic style and sophistication to Vero Beach - a largely undiscovered treasure a couple of hours North of Miami.  We love the white sand, the quality restaurants, and the refreshing orange slushies combined with vanilla ice cream.

Here are some photos of the resort:

So if you want to join us, please call Costa d'Este now or book online and join us.

Costa d'Este  https://www.costadeste.com/

Address: 3244 Ocean Dr, Vero Beach, FL 32963

Hours: 

Open 24 hours

Phone: (772) 562-9919

St. Kitts

 A delightful island experience to end our tour - we rode a train along the coast of St. Kitts.

I had shared with the tour group an experience we had during our mission when we took a flight home from Barbados and the plane could not land in Trinidad due to a goat on the runway.  It circled for an hour, flew to Tobago to refuel and then returned to Trinidad.  Not one person grumbled.  They just laughed and cheered.  Such is the Caribbean culture.  And here is a picture of a goat that was on the train track before we passed by.

Martinique

 Martinique is a French island with a population of over 300,000.  What is sobering is that in 1908 there were 28,000 people destroyed in 7 seconds from the eruption of Mt. Pele, a volcano, that spewed out lava as rain rather than rolling down the hillside.

We took a tour through lucious rainforests and Diane and I met up with the Occoliers, and drove around the city looking at the Church buildings where we met during our mission.  Lionel is now the district president.

St Lucia

Oprah once said that of the top places to see before you die, the Pitons of St. Lucia should be at the top of the list.  So we introduced our group to the Pitons.

We took a catamaran to Sugar Beach in near the Pitons and did a mud back, a water fall, and had a wonderful time.

Barbados

 A perfect day!  We went to the best beach on the island (Carlisle) and swam with the turtles and snorkeled around a shipwreck.

The water is warm and is my favorite spot for swimming in the West Indies.

Antigua

After a long, winding tour of the island up to its highest peak, Shirley Heights, we had a good view of the shoreline. 

The highlight of the day was the Jolly Beach, one of the most popular of the island's 365 beaches.

You can see that the sargasm (seaweed that plagues the Caribbean, has hit this beach, but they keep it under control.

Senior Couple Mission? Think West Indies

We are enroute to five of the islands in our mission with 110 of our best friends.  Tomorrow we will in Antigua and on Tuesday in Barbados, we will meet with two sets of senior couples in the Bridgetown, Barbados Mission.  They will talk to us about what it is like to serve an island mission.

This video we prepared during our 3 year mission there will help convey our feelings about senior couple missions, too.

President Russell M. Nelson has encouraged couples to “get on their knees and ask Heavenly Father if the time is right for them to serve a mission.” Of all the qualifications, he said, “a desire to serve may be the most important.”

"I ask you to serve as a missionary in the gathering of Israel and perhaps even serve again. We need you—we need you. We are grateful to you seniors for the lives you have led and the examples you have been in your homes, wards, and stakes. I now invite you to take your know-how, coupled with your time-honored testimonies, and go on a mission." (Elder Rasband, General Conference, October 2023)