Eastern Caribbean Cruise!

 Day 0

Early morning at SeaTac waiting for a late plane so we can begin our long journey to Miami. The plane finally came but got us to Houston late enough that we missed our flight to Fort Lauderdale.  After a few hours in the Houston airport we caught the next flight and landed in Florida quite late at night.  We stayed at a hotel near the airport and had a shuttle booked to get us to our ship in Miami!

 

Day 1 

This was a Carnival cruise.  When we arrived at our stateroom mom and I had the pleasant surprise of some fun gifts awaiting us on our beds.  Wes had picked out these great canvas bags and beach towels as a welcome gift! So cool.

 

 

As we left Miami there was a fun party atmosphere with music and games on the pool deck.  We were taking in all the sights and the lovely heat in beautiful Miami.  This is the causeway in the background.

 

 It was a picture perfect day, a light breeze and sun, glorious sun!

 

 

It didn't take long to discover that the lemonade on board the Liberty was delicious.  I think it's safe to say we all drank our share.  Yum.

 

 

 Day 2

Our first port of call, Half Moon Cay.  Paul, Wes and I took the tender over to the island.  Uh, my camera took awhile to adjust to the humidity...

Our lovely home away from home behind us.

 



 

The beautiful beach ahead beckoning to us!

 

 

And here we are, ready for our first big adventure in the Caribbean.

 

I had no idea what to expect here, but this island is basically owned and operated by the cruise lines.  It has the most gorgeous beach I've ever been to.  This water was so clear and a gorgeous aqua color, and SO warm, it was unreal.  The sand was a powder fine white, just amazing.

 

 

We swam in the glorious water and laid out in the hot sun, letting the island breeze take away all cares.  There was a barbecue a short walk away on the island and music and festivities all afternoon long at the pirate ship/bar just down the beach.

 

Paul was excited to try the Steakhouse on the ship, so mom and I joined him for a great steak dinner with a really fun dessert, see the little glasses above?  Each was filled with a different chocolate delight.

 



 

Day 3

The waterslide was an adventure...mostly because it was flowing with eye-stinging salt water!

But we all enjoyed it as well as some down time in the afternoon to soak up some fabulous Caribbean sunshine.

 



 

Formal nights on the ship are the time to dress up as much as you can.  Let those fake diamonds shimmer and shine!  It's also the time when the hallways are lined with photographers waiting to get a shot at you.  I think we picked a good one!

 



Mom's lovely blue eyes are really shown off well.  She is so beautiful!

 



 

Good thing I've been doing arm exercises lately...

 

We had dinner in the gold dining room.  Very ornate.  Our waiters were so attentive and friendly, calling us by name and making dinner a much looked forward to part of the day. 

 



Day 4

Beautiful St. Thomas Island!  We took a small air-conditioned, thank goodness, bus on a tour of the island.  After going through town for a bit we began making our way up the steep, narrow mountain road full of hair pin turns and incredible views of lush greenery, deep blue water and nearby islands.

 



 

We first stopped at this lookout to take pictures of the bay below where our ship was docked.

 

 

A few locals had set up a market area selling clothing, jewelry, bags and other craft items.

 

 

Our final destination:  Mountain Top.  A wonderful souvenir shopping experience awaited us in this building at the very top of the island.  And when we went through the building to the overlook area,

 

We were treated to this incredible sight.  Megan Bay, easily the most picturesque scene of our trip.

 



 Apparently there are pirates in the area.  Wes is trying to kiss up to him, you know, just to keep things friendly.

 

 

Our second adventure in St. Thomas was takin a little ride on the SCREAMIN' EAGLE JET BOAT!

 

We did 360's, fast stops, fish tails, all in an effort to get as much water splashed into the boat as possible and to maximize the WOW effect.

Let's just say that a good time was had by all. 

 



Above the warning sign on the boat in this picture you can see the profile of an Indian chief. 

 



 

Our fearless driver, Randy.  I think he liked having us aboard.

 

 

We hustled back to the ship and got all spiffed up for another wonderful dinner.   Just look at those rolls.  MMMmmm good. And what a great view.  We were lucky enough to get a window seat so we could watch the ship leave this beautiful island.  I would love to visit here again someday.

 

I wasn't really kidding about the pirates though.  We were escorted by police boats with machine guns on board!

 

 

Day 5

As you can see, we arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico!  The three of us hustled up a taxi/shuttle tour.  Our driver took us mostly through old town, but showed us other points of interest, huge malls, a baseball stadium, and some of the downtown area.  San Juan is huge, and Puerto Rico is far more populated than I imagined.

 

 

We chose to be dropped off in the shopping district, and boy did we shop!

Well, mostly window shop.  The prices seemed a little high to me, so I just looked.

 

 And enjoyed the scenery.  Actually I did make it to the shops where they were giving away free stuff to people from the cruise ship.  I picked up a couple of pendants and a lovely bamboo necklace which I am modeling above.

 

 

 

 As we left San Juan we had a great view of this 500 year old fort.

 





 

At dinner our waiters sang and did a parade for us.

 

 

 That night we saw a crazy cool lightening storm across the water.  Wes was patient enough to keep trying and he ended up with this photo.

 

 

Day 6

Our last stop, Grand Turk.

 

 It was so hot and humid that once again, my camera fogged up when I first tried to use it!

 

 

Our view of the ship while lounging around on the beach.

 

 

Thanks for the beach towel Wes!

 

 

Do these guys look like beach bums or what?

 

On our way to our next big adventure, we passed lots of these shallow ponds.  I think they make salt here on Grand Turk.

 



This is the beach we were transported to for the big one, our much anticipated adventure, power snorkeling! 

 



 

Get ready,

set...

 

 

Go!!!!!!

 

 

The fish and coral were ok, but honestly, not quite as awesome as Hawaii's.  Just sayin'.

We got back to shore pretty late compared to the time the ship was departing, so once we were dropped off back at the shopping area, we were hustled back to the ship.  "No shopping, please hurry"

We heard a lot of that.  So we hurried.

 



But I still snapped a few photos.  Just because I could.

 



 

And who knows if I'll ever be back here again.  This is us, hurrying!

 

Farewell Grand Turk.

 



 

Day 7

On our last night aboard we finally went for the group shot.  I would say we looked well rested, but honestly, I think we all wore ourselves out, not wanting to miss a minute of fun! Each evening after dinner there was a night show, music and some dancing, and parties!  One night was a Mexican Fiesta out on deck, another night was a Mardi Gras with beads and a parade.  We may or may not have been directly behind the band, leading the parade, being videoed by fellow cruisers wondering why a big parade was busting it's way across the entire ship.  Ah hem.

 

 

Also, there were lots of activities during the day.

 

Cuz you never know when you might need to know how to fold a couple of towels into an elephant.

 

 

Paul and Wes just happen to be the fine owners of not only a couple of sweet medals they won during a cutthroat game of trivia,

 

 

but they also won this distinguished medal, Ship on a Stick. Nice going guys!

 

Day 8

This is our view during breakfast the last morning.  The water was such a deep purply blue.

 

Back at Miami.  Au revoir Caribbean!

Leavenworth 2013

Keith and I have enjoyed going to Leavenworth in the Summer many times.  We marvel at the beautiful flowers, wander the shops, and we love the plays, especially The Sound of Music, which is a Summertime classic in Leavenworth.  This year we planned ahead and invited our mothers to join us.  Unfortunately Bobbi was recovering from illness and unable to make it.  So I took advantage of the opportunity to invite two fun friends to join mom and I on the trip.  Peggy and Carol are, as you can tell by their smiles, very cheerful and fun companions. 

 



Mom and I happily meandered down Main Street poking into any shops that caught our fancy.  I think it's safe to say that we each found a treasure or two along the way.

 



Dinner!  My favorite crepe restaurant was the predetermined destination.  Here are the dessert crepes.  They were huge!  The funny thing is that I had remembered the crepes as being very big, so I suggested we share our dinner crepes.  They turned out to be rather small and we all felt a little hungry after the meal.  So we each got our own dessert crepe and laughed so hard when we saw how big they were!  We were planning to taste each other's, but none of us wanted to share even a bite, they were all so delicious!

 



After dinner we made our way to the Ski Hill Amphitheater and our front row seats for the show.

 

Although rain was in the forecast, we stayed nice and dry during the play.

 



There was a nifty new set this year.

 



I love this hotel.  It's cute inside and out.

 



 

After a yummy breakfast we made our way back down the mountain, refreshed and singing "The Hills are Alive" as we went.

31 Years and Counting

 

Thirty one years is a long time. We're not kidding anybody.  So to make things feel young and fresh, you just have to go someplace much older, to bring the years into perspective.  I mean, what's 31 years compared to these Parliament Buildings in Victoria BC.  We're talking 120 years old! 

That's the secret to keeping things young and fresh, my friends.  Perspective.

 

Getting there is just a short 2 hour ferry ride from Anacortes.  I know 2 hours SEEMS like a long ferry ride, but remember, we are talking about perspective here. Stay with me.

 



 

After taking a few pictures, spending a little time buying fancy European chocolates at the onboard duty free shop

 

 

and enjoying the views of the beautiful San Juans, the time just flies.

Making arrangements for a bed and breakfast is always a little risky, 

but we were very pleased with this cute little room in Sydney, BC. 

 



I'll admit, it's a little on the newer side, but it's decorated to look old, so again, we are in keeping with the theme here.

 



 

Very cute.

 

Dinner was at the lovely and more modern Haro's restaurant right on the waterfront.  I actually enjoyed my dinner more than it looks like from this shot.

 



 

 Keith is hoping the real food gets here soon.  It was one of those places where you are invited to "enjoy the dining experience" so it took around 2 hours from start to finish :)

 

The next morning we were off to explore Victoria in all it's grandeur and glory.

 



 

Like I said, majestic!

 

 

Queen Victoria, the Island's namesake in all her glory.

 

 

The famous Empress Hotel, a whopping one hundred and five years old.  Now that's old.

Oh, and by the way, if you decide you just must have afternoon tea here, plan on a lot of time and money.  Like 60 bucks a pop and a couple of hours.  Not kidding.

 



We were lucky enough to show up the weekend of a very old traditional type of boat race.  Dragon boats have been racing in China for over 2000 years!  That's some real perspective.

 



 

I loved the colors of the festivities.

 

 

In honor of Devin, Filipino food.  It looked really good.

 

These water taxis are about the cutest thing floating in the harbor.

 



 

The Buchart Gardens was our final destination, started over 100 years ago.  This is the sunken garden.

This fountain is just beyond the sunken garden.

 



 

Keith near one entrance to the rose garden. 

 

 

Moi, standing near a restaurant, ready to eat a delicious feast.

 

In the Japanese gardens.

 



This is the star pond.

 



 

With my fancy camera I was able to zoom all the way past the Japanese gardens down to the secret harbor, Keith's favorite view of the evening.

 

 

I love weeping willows over water.

 

 

The rose carousel.

 

 

And onto the fireworks show.

 

 

And may the next 31 years find us still feeling fresh and young.  Or we'll have to go someplace REALLY old, like Europe or Asia. Gee, wouldn't that be rough.

Barkley Sound Fishing Trip August 2013