Monday, May 25, 2009

Day Four:Key West

Our last port of call was Key West, Florida. The island used to be the wealthiest city in Florida, but today it is a huge tourist location. However, as you travel farther in from the coast you can still see tons of old homes with large porches and front yards covered in tropical gardens, they were so pretty!
We walked into a small indoor mall, and wondered upstairs where we found a very sweet lady feeding parrots. She told us about a free movie playing inside that she described as "scuba diving without getting wet," so we decided to go in and check it out. The film was played on three huge side by side screens. It featured all of Florida's beautiful wildlife and reefs. Dave and I were looking at each other and asking how is this free?! Then we figured it, near the end of the film it took a very different turn. Suddenly we were watching the a description of the 7 creative periods and being quoted Psalms. As we left the theater they were handed JW literature, and then it all made sense...kind of.

From there we continued our walk around Key West, this time in search of some key lime pie. A local told us about a lady that worked in a grocery store up the road and said she sold the best key lime pie on the island. So we headed up the road for a slice. We lucked out and got the last one on the shelf. It was the strongest creamiest key lime pie I've ever tasted. It had a great brown sugar crust, and was topped off with banana cream frosting. We met the baker and she was totally flattered to be called the best. She then recommend a great place to go get conch fritters, and after giving Dave an English lesson on how to properly pronounce conch (conk) we were on our way.

The place turned out to be a total shack. It looked like all its walls and roofing were built with depree left over from the last hurricane. It had so much charater, and was a great place to eat.Dave's conch fritters, which are basically hushpuppies.

Here we are at a the Blond Giraffe, a key lime pie factory, that every tour guide book will tell you has the best key lime pie, but our local friend knew better.

After walking around for so long we were getting hot, so we stopped at the dock, put our feet in the cool water, and enjoyed the view.

From start to finish, the whole trip was a blast! It was very relaxing and beautiful, and so much fun to get to spend so much time together.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Blurb Book

After spending way to much time choosing background colors and then forgetting about it for a long time, I finally finished our album for 2007. If your bored, you can check out the first 15 pages here.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Day Three:CocoCay

Tuesday was by far Dave and I's favorite day. Royal Caribbean owns a little island in the Bahamas called CocoCay it was very beautiful and a ton of fun. To me, the day was as if someone had a private party on the beach and invited us to come.
We found this comfy spot on the beach...With this view and didn't want to move all day, and the best part was we didn't have to.
The water was so crystal blue.

There were huge sand bars you could walk out into the ocean on and find conch shells.

We participated in the boys against girls relay that was a blast, but Dave had the most fun playing volleyball.
We also went for a late night climb on the ship's rock wall.

And just like every other night, the night was not complete without a stop by pizza the parlor for a late night snack.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Day Two: Nassau

One of the greatest things about being on a cruise is going to bed in one place, and then with no effort of your own, waking up in a completely new and exciting place. Tuesday morning found us in Nassau, Bahamas. Aside from the pushy locals that want your business and money Nassau was really great.

We took a boat ride Past Paradise Island to Athol Island where we went snorkeling. Neither of us had ever been before, it was a great first experience.
Tuesday night was formal night on the ship.
And when we got back to our room we found an elephant in our bed!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Day One: Everglades

Our journey to the Bahamas began last Sunday. After arriving in Miami with no trouble at all we rented a car and headed down to South Beach for dinner. We eat at a great Cuban restaurant, but that was hardly the highlight of the trip. Dave and I (mainly Dave) couldn't get enough of all the rare cars. We must have seen 6 Bentley's within two miles, along with several Corvettes, Mercedes, and every other rare expensive car you can think of.
After driving up and down the streets of South Beach we hit the beach for a late night walk. The wind was blowing and it was beautiful.

Monday morning we drove about 40 minutes outside of Miami to take and air boat tour of the Everglades. I had wanted to see them since I was a little girl, I'm not sure if they were worth all the hype I had given them, but it was pretty great to see.



By 3 o'clock we had boarded our ship and were ready to eat like crazy for the next 4 days and play even harder.