Bon Voyage!

A few weeks ago, Mike and I were able to escape on a fabulous Eastern Caribbean cruise! The past few years have been crazy busy, so we were definitely ready for some adults-only relaxation. We headed out with some good friends and had such a fun time!

{The Bahamas - Half Moon Cay}

Our first port was the cruiseline's private island, Half Moon Cay, which is in the Bahamas. We were so nervous the night before we landed because it was raining when we left Miami and had been raining on and off all night. Sure enough, when we woke up the next morning, it was raining. We decided that we were going to try and make the most of our time their anyway. Even with the poor weather, the island was BEAUTIFUL...white, powdery beaches, clear blue water, palm trees. Too bad that there was just enough wind to make the rain cold. We decided to still try and go in the ocean and that did help us warm up a little, but it was still cold. We only stayed on shore for about 45 minutes or so before we decided to take a tender back to the ship. 

Our cruising group: Kevin and Lori Olsen, Taylor and Ashley Sanderson, and Mike and me!

The girls! Lori, Ashley, and me

{St. Thomas}

Our next stop was the beautiful island of St. Thomas, which is part of the US Virgin Islands. We were so excited to see that we had SUNSHINE! We decided to take a taxi over to Magen's Bay. In order to get to the bay, we had to drive over a mountain and across the island; the island was beautiful and there were some amazing views, but unfortunately I didn't get a great picture of the landscape. 

After spending some time in the bay, we went to Senior Frogs for lunch. Don't you love our fancy hats? After lunch, we walked around some of the shops that were near the port. Apparently, St. Thomas is known for its shopping, but none of us really ended up buying anything.

The views of the port in St. Thomas were beautiful. These are a few pictures that I took from the boat before we headed back out to sea. I loved the turquoise water, sail boats, orange-topped buildings, and lush, green landscape.

Headed back out to sea!

The sunset was beautiful. I took this picture shortly after leaving St. Thomas, but I'm not really sure which island is in the background.

{Puerto Rico}

Next up was Puerto Rico. This was the island that I was looking forward to the least, but it actually ended up being one of my favorites. Once we got off the boat, we hired a local (Frank) to take us on a tour of the city. It was really interesting to see both Old San Juan and New San Juan from a local's perspective. We all started joking that we needed to buy a vacation home and move to Puerto Rico!

Frank took us to the Capital Building. Apparently they are doing some work on it because it is going to be in a movie. The inside had some really neat and detailed architecture.

After checking out the Capital Building, we drove around the "New" San Juan, and then we went to  see where they do cock fighting. Apparently cock fighting is a big sport in Puerto Rico...they have a lot of arenas built just for it. When we got there, there were a few roosters that were out in cages; apparently that means there was going to be a fight that night.

I absolutely LOVED Old San Juan. I am just a sucker for old cities that have tons of character, and that is exactly how this part of the city was. This is an old cemetery that we drove by...apparently it has been used in several movies. It would have been so interesting to explore it more.

I am So. In. Love. with these colorful buildings and cobblestone streets. Lucky for me, all of the shopping that we did was in this area, because I could have spent hours exploring the streets and taking pictures. I loved it!

This was what was left of an old chapel that was built in the 1700's. 

Kevin and Lori

Ashley, Lori, and Me

{Grand Turk}

Our last stop was Grand Turk, which is part of Turks and Caicos. The water here was GORGEOUS! Exactly what you would picture if you were imagining the Caribbean. Once again, we decided to take a tour of the island. The island was a lot different than what I had expected...it was very dry and arid. Apparently the only palm trees are the ones planted by Carnival at the port.

Our tour took us to a salt museum and the island light house. At one time, the slave trade and salt farming were the biggest industries on the island. They still have salt ponds, which kind of reminded me of the salt flats.

The light house isn't in use any more, but the site offered some great views of the water.

Our lovely cruise ship, the Carnival Liberty. 

Besides having fun in the ports, we also had a great time on board the ship. There were a ton of laughs, sun, trips to the comedy club, ice cream cones, and of course, karaoke! Apparently we were quite the performs...a day or two after we sang, a group of girls saw us, pointed, and said, "Look, it's the girls from karaoke! That's the one that was so drunk that she forgot the words and fell over!" Funny thing is that unless they spiked the diet coke, we were all completely sober. At least we know how to make a lasting impression, right?