Keith swimming in the sea.
Antigua has 365 beautiful beaches.
4.10.2010
4.09.2010
St. Kitts
We made it to the top of the volcano in St. Kitts!
A scenic view of the Caribbean from the base of the volcano in St. Kitts.
4.08.2010
More vacation photos
Dressed up for formal dinner on the ship.
A pedestrian only street in Old San Juan.
4.07.2010
Photos from St. Thomas
A picture of us in front of bougainvillea in full bloom.
The harbor at St. Thomas from the top of Paradise Point. Our ship is at the bottom left corner.
4.06.2010
It's been a long time since we posted because...
We've been busy making plans to be out of town for ten days, and it's not something that we put out in public before it happens.
In honor of our first anniversary and as a last hoorah before I go back to school, we went on a southern Caribbean cruise and tacked on three days in Puerto Rico. My Spring Break from school was an entire week plus the Monday after Easter.
We left home on Friday, caught a shuttle to the airport, and flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We spend Saturday walking around Old San Juan, visiting El Morro, and eating local food. We boarded our cruise ship in the late afternoon, and we started trying to learn our way around. Our first stop was the next day in Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas where we took a tram ride to Paradise Point and saw an overview of the port and town. We were still pretty worn out from travel and our day in Old San Juan, so we relaxed the rest of the day on the ship. On our second day, the ship landed in St Croix, also part of the US Virgin Islands. We went to Buck Island for a snorkeling tour, and the many fish were brilliantly colored and easy to get close to. Our next port was Basseterre, St Kitts, where we took on the task of hiking to the top of a volcano. Four hours, lots of tree roots and boulders, and exhausted muscles later, we completed our mission, which is better than what some folks could manage. We have great pictures from the top of the volcano. Since we planned on an exhausting day with the volcano, the next day in Antigua, we planned to chill out at a beach. We're pretty good at doing that, too! Our last port was Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, which is primarily French-speaking. Keith took a tour of some beautiful botanical gardens and a short beach stop while I stuck around the ship still trying to recover from my grueling volcano hike. The last day of our cruise was at sea, which we enjoyed very much.
When we arrived back at the port in San Juan, there was a rental car waiting for us. We picked up the car, and headed toward the Arecibo Observatory in the middle of nowhere. It's gigantic, and the visitors' center was quite informative. We were grateful for a good map that Keith bought before we left home, but we learned that the roads aren't all that accurate up in the mountains where they snake from side to side. The motion sickness was a lot for me to handle (I've only been carsick two other times in my entire life!), and we finally found our way to better roads. I was only delighted to pay the tolls for major highways on the island. We stayed on the southeastern side of the island at a hotel that we've dubbed a "Puerto Rican Motel 6," which is not what we were aiming for. The next morning, we got up early and headed to El Yunque Rainforest, which was lovely. I was a little intimidated by the snaking roads up to the forest, but it wasn't too bad. We hiked a 40-minute trail there that I appreciated so much compared to the volcano! Since it was the actual date of our anniversary, we headed back to our hotel, got cleaned up, and drove over to a major city called Ponce for dinner. Keith found his way to the square in the center of town, and we were overrun by the traffic that was taking people to Easter mass at the church in the middle of the square. We ate a fantastic dinner, sat in the square talking and watching people, then found some great ice cream. We headed back to our Puerto Rican Motel 6 and packed up to leave the next day. We delivered our car to the airport and waited for our plane to take us home. We got home last night about 7pm and started filtering through the mail, DVR recordings, and dirty clothes.
School is back in session today, and I'm going to miss my afternoon nap that has kept me going the last few days.
For the next year while I'm in school, we're looking forward to discount mini-vacations like camping at Jekyll Island, White Water and baseball in Atlanta, a visit with friends in Washington, D.C., some time at the Blackwell river cabin, and hopefully some more camping. We might even manage to find a cheap, last-second cruise for 3 days, but we'll settle for landlocked life if nothing shows up.
So, happy anniversary to us! We made it one to remember. Our parents also sent cards honoring the day, which we really appreciated.
In honor of our first anniversary and as a last hoorah before I go back to school, we went on a southern Caribbean cruise and tacked on three days in Puerto Rico. My Spring Break from school was an entire week plus the Monday after Easter.
We left home on Friday, caught a shuttle to the airport, and flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We spend Saturday walking around Old San Juan, visiting El Morro, and eating local food. We boarded our cruise ship in the late afternoon, and we started trying to learn our way around. Our first stop was the next day in Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas where we took a tram ride to Paradise Point and saw an overview of the port and town. We were still pretty worn out from travel and our day in Old San Juan, so we relaxed the rest of the day on the ship. On our second day, the ship landed in St Croix, also part of the US Virgin Islands. We went to Buck Island for a snorkeling tour, and the many fish were brilliantly colored and easy to get close to. Our next port was Basseterre, St Kitts, where we took on the task of hiking to the top of a volcano. Four hours, lots of tree roots and boulders, and exhausted muscles later, we completed our mission, which is better than what some folks could manage. We have great pictures from the top of the volcano. Since we planned on an exhausting day with the volcano, the next day in Antigua, we planned to chill out at a beach. We're pretty good at doing that, too! Our last port was Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, which is primarily French-speaking. Keith took a tour of some beautiful botanical gardens and a short beach stop while I stuck around the ship still trying to recover from my grueling volcano hike. The last day of our cruise was at sea, which we enjoyed very much.
When we arrived back at the port in San Juan, there was a rental car waiting for us. We picked up the car, and headed toward the Arecibo Observatory in the middle of nowhere. It's gigantic, and the visitors' center was quite informative. We were grateful for a good map that Keith bought before we left home, but we learned that the roads aren't all that accurate up in the mountains where they snake from side to side. The motion sickness was a lot for me to handle (I've only been carsick two other times in my entire life!), and we finally found our way to better roads. I was only delighted to pay the tolls for major highways on the island. We stayed on the southeastern side of the island at a hotel that we've dubbed a "Puerto Rican Motel 6," which is not what we were aiming for. The next morning, we got up early and headed to El Yunque Rainforest, which was lovely. I was a little intimidated by the snaking roads up to the forest, but it wasn't too bad. We hiked a 40-minute trail there that I appreciated so much compared to the volcano! Since it was the actual date of our anniversary, we headed back to our hotel, got cleaned up, and drove over to a major city called Ponce for dinner. Keith found his way to the square in the center of town, and we were overrun by the traffic that was taking people to Easter mass at the church in the middle of the square. We ate a fantastic dinner, sat in the square talking and watching people, then found some great ice cream. We headed back to our Puerto Rican Motel 6 and packed up to leave the next day. We delivered our car to the airport and waited for our plane to take us home. We got home last night about 7pm and started filtering through the mail, DVR recordings, and dirty clothes.
School is back in session today, and I'm going to miss my afternoon nap that has kept me going the last few days.
For the next year while I'm in school, we're looking forward to discount mini-vacations like camping at Jekyll Island, White Water and baseball in Atlanta, a visit with friends in Washington, D.C., some time at the Blackwell river cabin, and hopefully some more camping. We might even manage to find a cheap, last-second cruise for 3 days, but we'll settle for landlocked life if nothing shows up.
So, happy anniversary to us! We made it one to remember. Our parents also sent cards honoring the day, which we really appreciated.
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