Meschin' Around...: December 2012

I'm falling so far behind on my posts! I feel like I will never get caught up! So here we go... I have lots of pictures to share, so grab a drink and maybe a snack or 2. This might take awhile! And please just bare with me, because I need to mention a lot for journaling purposes too! In November before Thanksgiving my family took off on a cruise to the southern Caribbean. We had been anxiously waiting for this trip for over 7 months I think! My mom had received a little bit of money from my great aunts passing and was able to use some of it to take us on a family cruise. My mom, Jerry, Gary, Brayden, my sister, her friend Thea, and I would all be going on this adventure together. Here was our itinerary and some of the fun we had! Friday: Travel all day to Puerto Rico. We traveled from Denver to Atlanta and had a 3 hour layover. And thank goodness! Between Brayden, who I was afraid would get to restless on the long ride and my sister who has anxiety about flying, the long layover was a nice welcome! We arrived in in Puerto Rico later that evening. HOT and HUMID! As we were landing Brayden yelled out "We are gonna crash!" I thought my sister would have had a heart attack if she were sitting near us. Not to much excitement that evening. Just walked our block where our hotel was and tried to find dinner. And no one had chocolate milk for Brayden... WHAT?? I think Gary and Jerry had to walk to 3 different stores to try and find it. I thought I was going to have to do some weening off the choco milk on vacation! Saturday: We took off to Old Town San Juan. Beautiful! We first visited an old military fort. It was old and did I mention how HOT and Humid San Juan is? Yuck! After walking around the historical site I wanted to just jump in some ice cold water! We then went to downtown old San Juan and had some lunch. We wanted to try some real puerto rican food. So we asked locals where we should eat. I can't remember the name of place and of course didn't write it down. But it seemed pretty traditional. I had mofongo chicken. It was mashed plantains, made into a volcano with shredded chicken with some sort of garlic sauce. Now the first bite really was not that bad. Even the first few. But after that the taste was just blah. Gary got a dish with grilled chicken and some kind of pesto sauce on it. It was DELISH! Everyone else had I had only with different meats on it. After lunch we walked around. It really is beautiful town. Old stone streets, and all different colored buildings. After walking around town we decided to head back to the hotel area. We ended up being told to take the wrong bus back and ended up on a 2 hour bus tour, I mean ride back to our hotel. We pretty much saw the whole island. I should say this too, we were told to take this particular bus and it would drop us off near our hotel. We rode for 2 hours to only have the last stop NOT be anywhere near our hotel. So we had to hop on another one to get us closer. Then we almost missed our stopped because we were all turned around. Finally back at our hotel! We decided to go to Sizzler for dinner that evening. And I will NEVER eat there again. EW! I remember them once upon a time but don't remember the food. I don't want to remember it this time either. Ha Ha! It reminded of a mixture of Country Barfet and Golden Corral. Nastiness! After dinner we didn't do much. Back at the hotel just hung out at the pool. I loved the people in Puerto Rico. They were so friendly and so helpful. They loved Brayden. They loved his blonde hair, which apparently they don't see very often. The lady at our lunch kept touching it. He definitely was the star of the show. Sunday: YAY!! Our big departure day. It was a day filled with excitement. We were so ready to get on board! I love the anticipation of going on cruises. Everyone around you is in total party mode! Everyone is happy, everyone is friendly, and everyone is looking for a good time! I am always amazed at how large the ships are! Just total amazement! And then you get on and it's endless fun! Our ship had 3 swimming pools, and outdoor theater, dance clubs, spa, camp carnival (for the kiddos), hot tubs, ice cream 24/7, Casino, 2 dinning rooms and a few other restaurants. They also did a different show every night. Magic shows, dance shows, musicals, and comedians. We also played bingo one day. The first day on board is mostly a day of figuring out where everything is. Checking out your room, eating, eating and more eating. And for those who like to drink and party. This is your place to be! They have a big send off party by the pool! Brayden actually was so tired our first day that I think Gary and him were in bed by 10pm. So I just went up to try and find the rest of my family for the big send off. Monday: By monday morning we were already in St. Thomas. We had no set plans for the day. My mom and Jerry had been here before so they planned the day to take a ferry over to St. John so they could do some snorkeling. Unfortunately they got over there and they had red flag warnings all over the beaches and no one was allowed to get in the water. Total bummer! Gary, Brayden and I met up with Thea and Angie and walked the town for a few and then headed over to the beach. I was so excited to take Brayden to the ocean for the very first time! He is such a water baby and I LOVE the ocean, so I thought it would be perfect! He was a little afraid but he did it. Before we even left on our cruise I would talk to Brayden about swimming in the ocean. He first started out saying no. He would tell me there are crocagators in there. LOL! Then he would proceed to tell me there are sharks and whales. I couldn't really argue with that one, but I still tried to convince him to go in and that I would keep him safe! He did go in and liked it at first. But never lasted long. He would much rather stay on shore and dig up the dirt and make sand castles! We still enjoyed our day at the beach. We spent a couple hours there and then headed to Senor Frogs for lunch. Gary had never been there so we wanted to check it out. St. Thomas was not really what I expected. I had heard so much about how beautiful it was. It wasn't my favorite. But we still had a nice time at the beach! Tuesday: This would be our only day at Sea. I honestly wish we could have had at least one more of these. I loved hanging out all day by the pool. I think this was the day we played bingo and just checked out everything on the ship. It was so relaxing and totally felt like vacation. Brayden had fun just splashing around in the pool all day! Wednesday: We had ported in Barbados. Absolutely the most beautiful water I had ever seen! Pictures will never do it justice. All of us planned an excursion that day. We are going swimming/snorkeling with Turtles! We boarded a catamaran, which none of us had ever been on. It was so much fun!! They even provided drinks and lunch for us! We rode along side the island for about an hour and then they stopped in an area that was just full of turtles. It was so cool to be that close to them and to be swimming with them! Seriously one of the best things I've ever done! Even Brayden got out with us. He liked seeing them until they got to close then he wanted back on the boat with daddy. After we snorkeled with the turtles they brought us to a remote beach and we all got to get off and play at the beach for a little while. This was a great day and I love Barbados. Although we didn't really go inland, so I didn't see much of Barbados. I just loved the water and the beach and what we got to do there! Thursday: Now we are in St. Lucia. As far as the islands go and what you see when you pull into port, this was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. SO GREEN! It really was so beautiful. Full of rain forests and mountains. Lots of fishing villages. Gary, Brayden, and I along with my mom and Jerry did a van ride tour of the island. It was fun and perfect for Brayden! We saw a lot of the villages, these 2 huge mountains they call the Pitons that were just majestic. We also got to drive into a crater of a Volcano. It was kind of funny actually. The volcano of course is dormant and has been for over 200 hundred years or something like that. So there's mud baths set up near it and you can take a short tour to see a waterfall that is over 300 degrees and then see some small geysers. A town was pretty much built in it. And they don't tell you as your driving up to the "small" geyser area that you are already inside this crater. Very anti-climatic! We also drove through one of their banana farms and got to try banana flavored ketchup and BBQ sauce. It was actually pretty good. We got to see an area where part of the original Dr. Doolittle was filmed. There were these random guys on the side of the road with Boa Constrictors. My mom and I got out and held them! CRAZY, I know! But who gets to do that?!?! The hills of St Lucia are just so beautiful and seriously the greenest I've ever seen! We had a great tour and a great day! Friday: St Kitt's! Again all of us except for Angie and Thea took a train tour. It's an old train and it's all open air on the top level. So we headed up to the top to enjoy our ride. St Kitt's was okay. On the train kids and families and people would all come running to wave at us! Very friendly! We saw a lot of the landscape. They also had some black sand beaches that were pretty cool! It was a nice relaxing ride. Just a good way if you want to take in the whole island in a couple of hours. This island is known for having those little cute monkeys. So after the train ride they had some guys waiting there with diapered and dressed monkeys that you can hold. They were actually practically throwing them on me. Brayden thought it was pretty funny! I really only wanted to hold a few. NOT 20! LOL, oh well, made for a funny photo! We decided to try and get lunch off the ship. So we found a little place that had a patio. It ended up being quite the experience. Brayden was so tired so he was having a tantrum moment. Gary and Jerry had taken our bags back to the ship. So of course I wasn't thinking and I didn't have a diaper or a sippy cup. Brayden of course decided to poop then and crying for choco milk. Maybe that's why I didn't enjoy lunch as much as I would have had it been a better situation. Saturday: BEAUTIFUL St. Maarten! We all decided to just spend the day at a beach. We took a taxi to one of the resorts. We rented chairs and there was an outside bar and grill right there. It was seriously one of the best days ever! I would do this more on my next trip too! We all just played in the water and played in the sand all day! I would go back to St. Maarten and just stay there for a week! The food was so good and we even had a little Parrot friend that ate with us. He kept saying "hello". Brayden thought he was cute, again only until he would get close then Brayden didn't like him. It was a day filled, with sun, sand castles, and ocean swimming all day. VACATION! This was the best way to end our week! Sunday: Back in Puerto Rico. We had a long day of travel. Off the boat and straight to the airport we went. I think we got home around 9pm that night. We were all pretty tired and just ready to be home. We had so much fun and I feel so lucky to have been and to have seen these beautiful places! We had a wonderful time! Enjoy the slideshows! Puerto Rico