10 Days In Paradise

Note - the picture resolution is being funny.  The smaller pictures look a little fuzzy, but are clear when you click on them.  Weird.

After being married 8 years and 3 kids later, Tag and I felt like we were in need of a little R&R for just the two of us.  In January we decided to book a cruise.  We had never been on one, but heard they were fun so we thought we'd give it a shot.  I had 7 nice long months to sit and daydream about the warm caribbean sun.  The day finally came and after crying many tears while saying goodbye to the kids, I was finally able to get into the car and drive to the airport.  My wonderful mother and very close family friends came to stay with the kids.  We landed in Puerto Rico and stayed a few days there before embarking on our caribbean voyage.
We had a great hotel room that spoiled us with our own patio that led out to the pool.  It wasn't hard to jump right into relaxing.  After talking to a few people very familiar with great places to visit while in Puerto Rico, it seemed we couldn't miss out on visiting Culebra.  It's an island that was recently voted to have some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  We jumped on a small plane - I mean very small plane, and headed out to the island for the day.  It did not disappoint!

Our Hotel

Culebra

Our pilot was the same guy who sold us the tickets, checked us in, and flew the plane.  He was nice to circle to island so we could get a few pictures.

 This is an aerial shot of the beach we went to. 

 Gotta love a small baggage claim :)

On Sunday we boarded the ship and got the news that a tropical storm was forming just around Barbados which was where we were headed.  Captain Karin made some changes to our itinerary successfully keeping us out of harms way.  We amazingly enough still got to visit all the islands we had planned on - just in a different order.  

St. Croix - The Virgin Islands

August 1, 2011

We took a bus across the island to Cane Bay to do some snorkeling.  This made for a pretty great way to spend our anniversary.  Back on the ship that evening we got ready for the first formal night and we even enjoyed being pampered at the day spa by getting a couple's massage after dinner.

Cruising

August 2, 2011

Now that Tropical Storm Emily was headed away from us, we could sail down to some of the southern islands.  The waves were still a little rough and I ended up feeling incredibly sea sick.  Tag took a book to one of the upper decks and read for several hours.  I tried to walk around and get pictures of the ship, but just ended up going back to our room to lay down.  It was nice to be able to lay around and do absolutely nothing.  By dinner I was feeling much more adapted to the swaying of the ship.  We went to one of the shows after dinner.  

Side note - the night before was when the water started getting rough.  I've been known to sleep talk a time or two. Apparently, I had a really bad dream that we were sinking.  I even jumped out of bed and flung open the door in the middle of the night to see if everyone was fleeing the ship.  I do vaguely remember this, but if you want the entire story you can ask Tag about it.  He really likes to tell it :)

Our stateroom attendant would occasionally surprise us with towels twisted into the shape of different animals, here are a couple

On every elevator there is a plate that has the day.  At first I didn't realize how handy this would be.  It is so easy to forget what day it is when you are on a cruise away from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

Barbados

August 3, 2011

 We booked an excursion that took us out on a catamaran to go snorkeling with sea turtles.  The weather was gorgeous.  The water was so blue and this was by far the softest sand I've ever felt beneath my toes. The turtles were not shy and swam all around us.  It was such a blast.  

This building is actually 8 apartments that run for 15 million a piece!  Crazy.

St. Lucia

August 4, 2011

We booked a land and sea tour that took us out and about the entire day.  I took quite a few pictures on St. Lucia.  This is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been - it was mesmerizing.  

I woke up right around sunrise and looked out the window to see this - 

we were just arriving at the island.

Piton Peaks - the second one is hidden by the fog

This picture is for you Monae - you know why :)

The beautiful botanical gardens

We boarded a catamaran to begin our sea portion of the tour

The sand on this beach is black because of the volcano.  It was still very soft and the water felt like a warm bath.  As soon as we arrived on this beach, men in kayaks swarmed us trying to sell their goods.  Tag bought a coconut from one guy, I bought a shell.  Then he tried to sell us what he called "something special" - weed.

 Marigot Bay

Back to the ship

St. John's - Antigua

August 5, 2011

We booked the Canopy Rainforest excursion which was basically a series of 9 ziplines and a couple of suspension bridges.  We had a lot of fun.  They wouldn't allow us to take our cameras in, so I don't have many pictures of Antigua.

 One of the ziplines is behind me.

St. Maarten

August 6, 2011

This was our last port of call.  By this point we were very anxious to get home and see the kids.  Once we got onto the beach though I was able to give in and relax for one more day.  This was one of my favorite ports.  The beach was covered with gorgeous seashells that we had fun collecting for the kids.  The shopping was pretty good too.

A family that was assigned to the same dinner table as us, ended up right next to us on the beach.  It was fun spending the day with them.

Last Night

These are the people we ate with and our waiter and assistant waiter.  We loved our table and made friends with everyone.  We ran into Alida and Fernando almost everywhere we went (the couple next to me).  They were all a lot of fun. 

We had such a great time on vacation!  We enjoyed going to shows, the food, and the use of the ship's gym (which helped me not gain a ton of weight).  There were so many things to do.  It will probably be a long time before Tag and I go and do something like this again, but we are excited for the future vacations we will go on with the kids.  It was nice having time with just Tag.  We had so much fun together.  

I do find myself hoping the assistant waiter, Ceasar, will show up at dinner with his tray of bread rolls.  We were very spoiled.

Before we left I put together a surprise bag for the kids for every day we were gone.  It helped them count down the days.  My mom said they were very good the whole time.  As I had been warned before we left from friends, Lucy was a little mad at me when we got back.  She just kept staring at me and didn't really want anything to do with me.  It didn't take long for her to warm back up to me, but it was kind of funny.  Once she saw me she got this look on her face like she finally realized I had left her for 10 days. Thanks Mom and Tracy and the girls for taking such good care of the kids!  They had a blast!

The kids waiting for us at the airport