Disclaimer: Since I've been away from the internet for more than a week, this post may take just as long to read. Proceed at your own risk...
I'M HOME!!! Vacation was amazing but nothing is better than coming home to your own bed. For 8 days, I traded snow for sand, and returned home to even more snow. I thoroughly enjoyed the break, but I've come to conclude I was made for tropical weather.
Sunday, January 30th: So the first day was incredibly long. We had a car pick us up at 5:30am, that is entirely too early for me because that meant I had to be up PRIOR to 5:30am. I'm so not a morning person. Saying goodbye to my puppies is always hard, but this time was especially difficult since we have never left them for this long before. I know they were in good hands, but with no phone or internet to periodically check on them, I was nervous. Our flight went off without any troubles, and met some family in North Carolina for our connecting flight. The best part: Jamba Juice was in the airport. I love that place and its probably best for my waistline that there isn't one in Kansas City. Our flight from North Carolina to San Juan took what felt like forever, but we eventually made it. Once we got off the plane, it felt like the cliche "hurry up and wait" scenario. We hurry to get our luggage, then wait for Royal Caribbean to load us up to go to the boat. Hurry to get to the boat, then wait for security. Hurry to get through paperwork, then wait to get our luggage back (which we didn't get until around 9pm). The boat was really nice, our room was small for 3 people (my "bed" came out from the wall), but our balcony view was priceless. We eventually met back up with our other family members and watched San Juan disappear into the darkness when we debarked. Exhausting day!
Monday, January 31st - Day at Sea: First day at sea! We found a few lounge chairs by the pool and relaxed. We walked around exploring the ship a bit, and eventually found the casino. For those of you who know me, I'm not a gambler in any sense of the word. However, my cousin Rob, who was along on the trip, is a gambler. He played slots then made it to the roulette table. I had never played, or watched. Within 20 minutes, Mary felt confident so she played... and won! She said, "c'mon just try it, I'll even give you $20." I played... and won! Woohoo!
Revolution, the Beatles tribute band, also played that night. For being probably one of the only people in the world who didn't listen to the Beatles for a significant amount of time, I enjoyed the show. I have a few songs on iTunes I'm going to need to purchase now :)
Tuesday, February 1st - Willemstad, Curaçao: I've been waiting for this day for SO LONG! We had booked the dolphin encounter back in August when we booked the trip, and I had been counting down the days. Driving through Willemstad on the way to the excursion, it was really obvious how lucky we are. The houses were in shambles, had bars on the windows and some doors, just not a good sight. I know every place has a bad area, and we found it in Curaçao. Anyway, the dolphins were amazing, we were in a group with a mom and her 2 young boys. They were so excited, it was adorable. Our dolphin, Retina, was still a teenager and was pretty moody. Each person had a few minutes by themselves with her to take pictures, well after the mom and her boys, she was over it. So we had her boyfriend (hahaa) come over to do our pictures. They're amazing animals, and so smart. I want one although I doubt it would live very long in Missouri...
After playing with the dolphins, we did some shopping downtown. On the way there, we ran into a guy who wrote us a song about "Missouri aka Misery". One thing I loved about Curaçao, all the buildings are so colorful. We need more of that in the U.S!
Wednesday, February 2nd - Oranjestad, Aruba: Before we even got off the boat, let me just say Aruba is insanely gorgeous. Everything about it is just breathtaking.
Mary had been counting down the days until this excursion... parasailing! She went first, when she came down she said it was awesome... and it was. I'm not sure what I was really expecting, but it was so quiet and peaceful being up that high. I loved being able to see everything. If you ever get the chance to go, DO IT! And don't forget to look around at everything.
Again, colorful buildings!
Before the trip, I had said all I wanted was to drink fresh coconut milk. And I found it in Aruba! The place is beautiful, the beach is amazing, and they have delicious coconut milk. I love, love, LOVED Aruba!
Thursday, February 3rd - Day at Sea: Another relaxing day for the most part. We laid around by the pool for a while, then we all decided to hit the mini golf course. I know, mini golfing in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, awesome huh? I lost unfortunately, but afterwards a simple game of HORSE turned into a 2 v 2 basketball game. My team won 5-2, maybe I'm a little too competitive... oh well :) My aunt Patty had gotten us tickets to an ice skating show (again, an ice rink ON the ship? Crazy!). I'll be honest here, it was weird. It was something about this artist's paintings coming to life, and it was on the creepy side. I guess I was expecting some sweet moves by Scott Hamilton, or Mickey Mouse on ice, but not quite. But there was a midnight poolside buffet that was fabulous, so that made up for it :)
Friday, February 4th - Roseau, Dominica: So excited to be back in Dominica; it's such a beautiful country. It rains constantly, probably why it's basically an island of nothing but rainforests, but it produces the most beautiful double rainbows ever!
On our Pools & Falls excursion, we stopped by the breathtaking Trafalgar Falls. Since there's 2, they nicknamed them, "The Papa" (left) and "The Mama" (right).
After a 15 minute hike down, we made it to the Emerald Pool. Legend has it, if you go in you will look 10 years younger. It apparently worked because the next day someone asked if I was 13, and no, she wasn't blind :) It was freezing, but it was so worth it. No picture could really do it justice.
Dominica is just beautiful.
Saturday, February 5th - St Thomas: One of my favorite places ever! We decided with all the fun excursions we had done, we wanted to relax on a beach at least one day. We had chosen a shopping and beach tour and it was a perfect balance. We went to Magen's Bay, which is one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world. Not to take anything away from Magen's Bay, but the last time I was in St Thomas, we went to St John to Trunk Bay. I think Trunk Bay is a better contender for one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches. But whatever, they're both beautiful. Back to St Thomas...
Such a fun, and beautiful island. We found some fun stuff shopping, and I fell asleep on the beach... perfection!
Sunday February 6th -San Juan: SUPERBOWL SUNDAY! We got off the boat around 10am, it took forever to get our luggage and go through customs but thankfully we made it! When we were leaving to get a cab to our hotel, there was a guy offering a "Best of San Juan" tour and they could drop us off at our hotel. Since we were going to do one anyway, we decided to go. It was a great tour, we saw the Old San Juan Fort, the beautiful Capital building, and some of downtown.
Capital building made completely of marble... beautiful!
Old San Juan Fort
We LOVED Senor Frogs!
Beach in San Juan
Saying goodbye to the beach :(
We were initially excited to watch the SuperBowl in San Juan... However we didn't take into consideration that the commercials were going to be in SPANISH! Let me know the good ones so I can YouTube them later. We had gotten free drinks at the hotel for 2 hours which we took advantage of. But because of the exhausting long day, I fell asleep by the 2nd quarter. Everyone who knows me knows I LOVE football, and I cannot believe I fell asleep during the biggest game of the year! Mary woke me up to tell me that the Packers won. I was so upset I missed it!
If you're still reading, pat yourself on the back, give yourself a gold star, and get a strong drink. I congratulate you on reading it all! Hope you enjoyed hearing about my vacation!
No comments:
Post a Comment