Family Vacation Post #3

We had a full day at sea after St. Thomas on our way back toward the states. We then stopped at Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas. Here's a picture of the island and the boat that met us. There isn't a dock because the water isn't deep enough so this was a tender, meaning we had to board on a small boat and it took us to shore.

Here's a picture of us getting to the island and looking back at the boat. We were on the second tender to shore, so we got there early to enjoy the day. This beach was incredible with white sand that felt like fine sugar and the BLUE water was so beautiful. Nick and Jake were in the water immediately. You could go really far out into the water before it got too deep. This area also had a reef and there were a bunch of fish in the water.

Brianna's dream excursion was to ride a horse in the ocean. None of us brought appropriate clothes to the island except for her so she went on her own. She made good friends that took care of her and she did get to ride on a horse while it swam. She loved it. She's on one of these horses, see if you can find her (because I couldn't!).

We stayed behind and enjoyed the beach and the sand and the water and it was awesome!

The next excursion that we went on was the Stingray Adventure. We were able to go in the ocean with these Stingray and touch them and feed them. It was so cool! There was also a reef here where we saw a Baracuda and other fun fish.

Here's our little sunburnt boy. He promised me it looked worse than it felt.

We got to hold a sea star and a sea cucumber. The stingrays are really smooth, until you get to the tail. It's very spiny and poky. They kept swimming around our legs and freaking me out.

We hated leaving Half Moon Cay because it was so beautiful and fun and it also meant that we were getting to the end of our journey on the sea. Our next stop was back in Ft. Lauderdale. The last night in the dining room the stewards put on a show for us. We didn't have any napkins until they brought them in and we joined in. It was also hard to say bye to our 5 star meals and Abdul serving them every night. They told us we would miss them when we had to go home to our microwaves. Oh how true that is.

Here we are off the ship early Saturday. Jake is pointing at the friendly birds who just pooped on him. That is our ship in the background.

Since our flight didn't leave until Sunday we had time to enjoy Florida some. We had a great driver, Robert, who took us to a gater farm and showed us some sights.

There were peacocks all over down there. It was weird. They would come right up and eat popcorn out of your hands. Oh yeah, and cats. The whole experience was a little Joe Dirt, but we enjoyed every minute!

Check out Kayla's face. Clearly she's not enjoying the birdman and the birds eating out of his hands. We were so totally tourists......

Here's a shot of the fan boat that we took the Everglades tour in.

It was so cool, we saw like 5 different gators while we were out there. They came right up to the boat. This guy had been messed up in a fight and his face was crushed. You could see the scars but we learned that alligators heal fast and well.

So, if you've ever watched Gator Boys, you might have seen this guy. This is the Gator Boy's Alligator Rescue and these guys are volunteers working to recoup naughty alligators.



And then we paid $10 for our kids to sit on them.

Jake was so excited to hold this little guy, he paid for the experience himself. Their skin is very leathery, I can see why they make nice shoes. :)

Our last stop was Miami. We didn't get there until dark and Robert let us get something to eat and then drove us past South Beach. We all got an education during that drive. We had a great day and were up early on Sunday to head home. We came back to snow in Idaho and missed our white beaches right away. It was such a fun time, and the Johnson's were awesome travel companions. I'm so glad we were able to be together as a family and have such a fun time. We're already planning our next trip, but we're leaving the kids home next time---they're too expensive! 

Family Vacation Post #2

Thankfully we had a day out of the sun for Jacob to recover from his second degree burn. We came into Puerto Rico to some cloud cover. We were escorted into port by the Coast Guard. I think they were showing off for us, they kept buzzing around the boat and the poor guy in the front (with the gun) had to hold on!

We came in to the very old part of San Juan. We didn't have a chance to tour Old San Juan but we got to see a little bit from the boat. The Fort and walls and such date back to the 16th century. We did get to walk on the blue cobblestone streets. If we ever get to Puerto Rico again we'll take Cory and we'll spend more time studying Old San Juan.

In Puerto Rico we went zip lining in the rain forest, and true to it's name.........it was raining. Thankfully is was in the tropics, so it was like a shower and made the adventure even more fun. We also got a "bouns" from the driver that took us up there, we were just happy to arrive alive.

Jacob was first in line to get fit for the harness. Although Brock looks like he might be nervous, he was a rock star and enjoyed every minute.

We hiked up the mountain a bit and they gave us some instruction on how to "brake" with our hands. They told us that since it was raining it made the ride faster. I don't know about that, but it was fun!

This is a great picture of Jacob headed to the next platform. There were a total of 8 platforms that we went down to, and they even dropped us vertically at one point. It was hard to look around and enjoy the scenery and keep focus on trying to stop!

When we were done in the rain forest we went to eat at a resturant named Latin Roots. We had some fried plantain and yummy pork and stuff. The resturant also had salsa dancing lessons, here we are being taught from a professional. Kevin even took a lesson and we did a little salsa dancing together.

We left Puerto Rico at 11pm and sailed all night and woke up to St. Thomas. It was a beautiful site!

When we disembarked, we were greeted by these guys. They were all over the rocks by the boat.



We didn't have an excursion scheduled in St. Thomas, but since our excursion was canceled in Grand Turk we decided to go on one in St. Thomas. Jacob and Brock thought that the legendary Ron Tiki Boat was the best party ever, as they got to learn songs like "the roof is on fire", the rest of us didn't necessarily agree but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. Part of the party boat tour included a stop on Honeymoon Beach. It was located on Water Island and the only way to get there was by boat........party boat in our case.

This was a georgeous beach and gives you an idea of how people live on Water Island, they go back and forth via boat. We had an hour to play here and then the party boat took us around the islands---all the while singing and congo lining......

We need to go back and visit St. Thomas too, because we didn't have time to check it out. We did learn that Blackbeard pillaged and plundered in St. Thomas. The lookout tower where he picked his prey still stands. Although there is all kinds of shopping in St. Thomas, we didn't get to partake...bummer.

That night the Johnson's and us dined at the Pinnacle Grill during their Le Cirque night. Le Cirque is a famous french resturant in NYC, so this is was a pretty cool opportunity. We had so much fun eating!!

Who knew that grapefruit and lobster went so well together (and this was the appetizer)? I can tell you though, I never care to sample foie gras again.....yucky!

We left the kids in the hands of Abdul (our dining room steward) while we went to Le Cirque but the next night (sailing to Half Moon Cay) we had another formal night and dined with them. Jacob and Nick loved ordering 2 entrees and 2 desserts every night---that's what I call a vacation! Here's my beautiful kids in all their finery. They clean up pretty well.

Okay, that's enough for now. Post #3 to follow.