Caribbean Cruise Part 2

Island #4: Antigua
On Thursday we went to Antigua. This day was completely different from the others because we spent the whole day on land rather than on the beach. We got in a little van and they drove up a group of us to a small rainforest.

This is where we got to do a zip line and canopy challenge. Here we are all suited up and ready to go.

It's really hot and muggy in the rainforest. By the end of the day we were ready to jump in the ocean to cool off. The zip lining was awesome though. We had never experienced anything like this before, and probably won't ever again, but it was worth it.

Island #5: St. Maarten
On Friday we visited St. Maarten. We didn't have an excursion planned for this day, so we asked the locals about nice beaches we could spend the day at. We ended up going to Pinel Beach. This island has 2 sides: the French side and Dutch side. This beach was on the French side.

We had to ride a little bit to get over to the island. The beach was really pretty with little lawn chairs and umbrellas set up all over.

As I mentioned before, we were on a French island and people were very "free" and "open". I don't know how many boobs we saw that day, but it was more than we wanted to see haha. We didn't stay on the beach too long. We tried to do some snorkeling, but they really patrolled this area and had a small little sliver of water roped off to where we could snorkel. So it wasn't the best snorkeling we did on the trip, to say the least. We still had a good time though.

Day #6: St. Croix:
On the last full cruise day, Saturday, we got to visit St. Croix. I'm sad to say that I didn't get any pictures of this island. Again, we didn't have an excursion planned this day, so we just went to a nice beach. Driving up to the beach, it was so beautiful and GREEN. The beach itself wasn't the nicest ones we stayed at, but the snorkeling here was the BEST. There was so much corral and sea life. We saw a couple sea turtles, a stingray, and a whole heap of different kinds of fish. It was like swimming around an aquarium...so neat.

When we got back to the ship, we went to the pool area to lounge around for a bit and take some final pictures of our cruise.


The next day, Sunday, we had to say goodbye to our cruise ship. Even though we had had so much fun on this trip, at this point I was getting ready to go home and see my baby. But we still had one more night in Puerto Rico. We went back to our hotel dropped our stuff off. Randy and John decided to go to the Rain Forest in Puerto Rico. Brandon and I really want to go too, but the locals told us that driving out of town was going to be a nightmare because of the "Festival" that was going on. Apparently they celebrate Christmas for like 2 whole months, and this was the last day of the celebration. So we decided to not risk it and just go shopping around Old San Juan again. This is the center gathering for the "Festival", so you can see that the streets were just lined with people everywhere.. It was kind of hectic.

Brandon ended up buying a really nice watch while we were there, and I got my new ring sized. So even though we didn't make it to the rainforest, things all worked out.

The next day we went to the airport and flew home. We got back to Salt Lake around 4:30 in the afternoon. I wanted to race to my parents' house because I was DYING to see my baby. In fact, I saw him in the window as we were walking to the door and I just burst into tears. I immediately grabbed Talin and hugged him to death. He seemed really confused, like he recognized us, but it had been so long I think he just got used to being with my family every day.

All in all, this was one of, if not the best, trips we have ever been on. I can't wait to book our next cruise! Ha ha ha.

Caribbean Cruise!!! Part 1

I've been meaning to update the blog and tell you all about our cruise, but I knew that it was going to be long and I just haven't taken the time to sit down and write about it. So, here we go....

There were six of us on this trip. Brandon's mom and her husband, Doug, Doug's daughter Randy and her husband John, and then me and Brandon of course. The HARDEST thing about this trip was saying goodbye to Talin for 10 days. He stayed with my family while we were gone. I knew he'd be in good hands, I had just never been away from him overnight, let alone 10 whole days.

We flew out to Puerto Rico on the night of January 8th. It was a huge shock to get off the plane and feel the immense humidity and warmth. So different from back home. We settled into our hotel rooms and went to bed. The next day we wanted to explore a little bit of Puerto Rico. We first walked to the beach and saw the ocean....GORGEOUS. The water out there is so blue!


Then we went and checked out the Fort.




There were some beautiful views of the city from on top of the Fort.

You can see our cruise ship in the background here.

Later that day we went shopping in Old San Juan. It's really busy there, and driving around is a nightmare. It's much easier to walk everywhere, otherwise you sit in traffic forever. Here is a view of what the streets looked like there.


In the late afternoon we finally boarded our ship. We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Sea. I've never been on a cruise ship before and it was huge to me. We had our first dinner of the week in the massive dining area. It was beautiful with chandeliers and music playing. The dinners on this ship were really fancy, and we made sure to try new things throughout the week. Brandon even ate escargo one night (it looked awful to me!).

Anyway, that first night on the ship I got sick. :( Talin had a stomach bug before we left, so I don't if it was that or just true sea sickness. I've never had motion sickness before in my life, so I'm not sure what to attribute it to. So when everyone went to a show that night, I went straight back to the room and died (not literally, but I felt like it).

The next day was a sailing day. We spent that day exploring the ship. We also went to a show that explained how to take advantage of the shopping on each of the islands. It was very informative. I didn't eat much that day at all, I was still feeling icky most of the day. Later that night the boys went to the sports bar and watched football while us girls went to the hot tub. It was nice. I think that's just I needed to help me start feeling better. Because the next day I felt great!

Island #1:
Tuesday was our first island adventure...BARBADOS! The first thing we did on the island was shop. Brandon had told me before the trip that he was going to buy me a nice ring on our cruise since my birthday landed during the week, and that he did. He bought me a gorgeous tanzanite diamond ring. Diamonds are way cheaper in the Caribbean, and you can talk them down on price. So this ring would've cost a lot more in the states. I felt like a giddy little girl after that.

After the shopping we went on our first excursion. We hopped on a boat which took us out on the beautiful Caribbean Sea. And then we got to swim with turtles and see a shipwreck. It was our first time snorkeling and it was awesome! Then the boat took us to a BEAUTIFUL island on Barbados. This was my favorite island of the whole week. The sand was so soft and there weren't any rocks or sharp coral in the water.




After that the small boat took us back to our port and we got back on the ship. Every night when we got back we would would clean up and go to dinner. That night was a formal night, so we all got to dress up. It was fun for me haha. Then after dinner every night there was some kind of showing: singing, dancing, comedy, something different every night.

Island #2:
Wednesday we went to St. Lucia.

We didn't have an excursion planned for this island, so we went and asked the locals about some fun things we could do. One guy told us he could take us on a water taxi tour around the island and let us go snorkeling, so that's what we did! We were all about being in the water on this trip, probably because it's something we can't do everyday at home.

Alex was our water taxi driver, along with Benjamin who was there to help out. The people on the islands are so friendly and full of life. I don't know how you couldn't be that way leaving in these places. St. Lucia, especially, was GORGEOUS! So green and scenic.


Here are what the locals call the Pitons. They were really cool.



We even sailed by a place where the Bachelor finale was filmed. I don't know which season, but I wouldn't have minded being proposed to in St. Lucia. I loved this island!

We're just getting started. There's more to come!