30 people. 3 sailboats. 1 week in paradise.  We just got back from sailing around the British Virgin Islands, y’all!  As you might expect, it was amazing.  One part camping and one part Caribbean vacation, this trip was adventurous, beautiful, and pretty affordable.  We are SO blessed to have incredible friends – Will & Carrie – who grew up sailing and organized the entire trip, including our itinerary, boat rentals, budget, and groceries.  And thank you to more talented friends – Win & Mason – who captained our boat, L’Attitude II.  I know nothing about sailing, and because of these awesome people, the trip was relaxed, carefree, and just about perfect.

I had never been to the Caribbean before and always pictured lounging at some resort, staring into the clear cerulean waves from a white, sandy beach.  And we’ve done the resort thing before (our honeymoon in Costa Rica), and it is everything it’s cracked up to be.  But I have to say – sailing is the way to go.  It was just… gorgeous.  And so fun.  We had 3 boats between all of us friends, so we’d caravan across the waters each morning to our next destination.  We saw giant turtles, flying stingrays (no idea they did that!), and lots of pretty fish.  We snorkeled almost every day, played sand volleyball, hiked around for some amazing views, and drank too many rum cocktails (the rum is amazingly cheap down there!).

It was also our first real ‘friend vacation’ as a married couple.  We’ve done trips by ourselves and trips with our families, but this vacation was entirely different.  Most of the people were Michael’s friends from college, and it was a blast for me to get to know them better and to make some memories as a couple with them.  Vacations with friends are something I hope we do every year.

I could go on and on, but I’ll hold off.  Have you ever been to the BVIs?  What did you do there?!