Caribbean Cruise

A couple weeks ago we celebrated our 10 year anniversary by going on a Caribbean Cruise! It was amazing, 6 days, 5 nights of beauty.  But before we boarded the ship in Ft. Lauderdale, we landed in Tampa to see our good friends from Ricks College.

Traveling was even fun with just the two of us. Below we are on our way, 6 hours of air time, and a stop at a delicious restaurant in the Denver airport called Roots Down that got me addicted to eggs Benedict.

One of my besties from Ricks, Jessica ran up behind me at the luggage terminal, so excited to see her!  We went straight to this awesome restaurant conveniently inside a magnificent mall. Jess and I made good use of our waiting time by hitting some shops before we ate. Fun times.

 The next day she took us to her favorite beach in Tampa: Honeymoon Beach only 45 minutes from her house. It was THE SOFTEST SAND my feet had ever touched (softer than the Caribbean). We collected sea shells and her kids build sand castles.

 It was gorgeous and warm.

The next day we took a 3.5 hour ride to Ft. Lauderdale, to board our ship.
What an amazing view! We got a room with a balcony so we could see it all, feel it all, and to help me prevent any sea sickness! Thank goodness I didn't get sick, my biggest worry. We set sail and were on our way to the Bahamas.

 I couldn't wait to meet up with our friends from Indianapolis, Brittany & Chuckie Goff. So fun to do this with them! Our first night we went to fancy dinning... every night we did sit down dinners. Better than the food on the buffets.

 The first stop our boat landed was Nassau, Bahamas. It was beautiful. 

The weather was amazing.

 We wanted to do a little sight seeing here, so we walked around and checked out the shopping streets in Nassau, there was even Gucci.

 We wanted to see the Queen's Staircase, which was 66 steep steps straight up (say that 10x fast). At the top of the steps was Fort Fincastle, some interesting history and lots of guns around.

 Then we got a taxi to see Atlantis. The biggest castle of a hotel with unbelievable scenery and waterfalls. We couldn't get into as much of the hotel as we would've liked, but we saw enough.

 Then we walked around the hotel to the public beach access. This water was AMAZING to swim. It was clear, turquoise water, warm and I could've stayed there forever.

 Then we took another taxi (they drive on the wrong side of the street) to some authentic Bahamian food. We went to Sharkeez to get some fried conch, the most popular food on the islands. Not bad, kinda chewy.

 That night back on the boat we went to a Magic Show by Landon Swank. He did some pretty impressive tricks. Wish the show lasted longer.  Then we went to enjoy the pool deck dancing party. Fun to get our groove on.

 The next day we landed on the Princess Cays island, it was a little windy that day.  Still a beautiful noncommercial island. It was cool to look at this sign and see how far away, or how close we were to different cities around the world.

Scott, Brittany and I all went snorkeling, wish we got more pics of us in our gear. But it was beautiful and we saw some amazing water life.  We spend most of the day relaxing in the sun, driving virgin lava flows and exploring the shoreline. Brittany and I had matching suits, different colors, and we didn't even plan it but wore them on the same day.

That night on the boat was fancy dress up night at dinner. Scott tried the escargot, not my favorite I'd say.

 The next day we landed on the island of Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos. It was amazing.

All around the island there are wild horses that roam, just like stray cats and dogs do here in America. They were beautiful creatures and they were everywhere!

We walked past Margaritaville, where most of our crew from the ship stayed and drank their hearts out. Brittany and I wanted a quieter local beach, and found one with this old ship crashed on shore. We went swimming for about an hour, it was so lovely.

We came across this deserted beach front property we explored its gorgeous remains.

We enjoyed some local fruit juice and got a taxi to downtown. It was a cute little beach town, very small and everyone was friendly.

I think the island men were intrigued by us two single ladies walking around, this older local on his bike rode with us a while asking if we were lost. But our taxi driver told us of the place to get the best grilled conch on the island, and we were to John's Ocean View Bar (pictured below) and it was actually not that bad. We took it for our guys to try.

While we were swimming in the gorgeous waters and exploring the island, the boys had their own adventure. They found a guy to take them deep sea fishing and Scott caught this massive Tuna fish. He found somebody on the island to cook it up for him, and we all tried it. BEST TUNA EVER! Honestly, I didn't know tuna fish could taste that good.

A couple mornings we brought breakfast to our room and ate on the balcony, so peaceful and serene.

That night we made it in time for Movies Under the Stars. They played "Captain Phillips" real ironic being on a cruise boat watching a movie about another boat being taken over by pirates... fun times nevertheless.
We also went miniature golfing the first night on the boat, the picture is terrible, but you can get the gist.

The last full day we were on the boat all day sailing back to FL. Brittany and I enjoyed the spa and some massages while the boys took naps. It was THE roughest day at sea and I wouldn't say I got sick, but it added to my post-cruise vertigo.

The last night on the boat they did this big New Year's Eve themed party where the balloons dropped. We ate some delicious food again, and went to a Newlywed Game show. Very interesting and a little awkward at times to watch. But it was sad to say goodbye to our good friends and our beautiful trip. What an adventure and great memory making times.