Cruisin' in the Carribean

We are back home after a wonderful week on vacation. We enjoyed every minute of our trip. We arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico last Saturday morning, January 26 around 10 am after an all night flight from LA (the only thing of note during our 5 hour layover in LA was that I saw Jessica Simpson in the LA airport). We rented a car and drove around San Juan and then out into the countryside. We eventually made it to the beach and then headed back downtown to return the car and get a ride to the cruise ship. We checked in around 3 and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on the ship getting familiarized with the HUGE, 17 story, 3000 passenger, Crown Princess. We spent Sunday at sea. Dad participated in the ping pong contest (3rd place) and in the basketball shootout (3rd place). I just relaxed and read on deck and watched a movie in the Princess Theatre "Walk the Line". I really enjoyed it. We loved the food, of course, in the formal dining room and went to all the shows. All the entertainment was outstanding. The big production shows were great and the comedians and magicians. Dad got freaked out by a mentalist (he could actually read people's minds) named Wayne Hoffman. IT was a great show. Sunday at lunchtime they had sushi (pictured below). It was DELICOUS!!! Don't I look happy??We participated in Trivia on Sunday evening, I think we again got 3rd place. Monday we arrived in Barbados. We hired a taxi driver and toured the island for 3 hours. We ended up on a beautiful beach and swam and ate our picnic (meat and cheese on hard rolls we smuggled from the breakfast buffet). We walked back into town and shopped a little bit then headed back to the ship for formal night.

Tuesday we spent the day in St. Lucia. I think that was my favorite island. It was beautiful and lush. Dr. Doolittle (with Eddy Murphy) was filmed on that island in Marigot Bay. If you saw that movie, you know how beautiful it is. We took a boat ride around the island and saw the famous "Pitons" and went to a mud volcano and a waterfall and botanical garden. We then went to a beautiful beach and relaxed and swam and snorkeled. The snorkelling was outstanding! We ate our picnic on the beach again. You know how much I love picnics!
Wednesday we spent in Antigua. Antigua is world famous for it's beaches. We hired a cab and went to Turner's Beach. It was windy that day but still beautiful and we relaxed on the beach and swam. Dad tried snorkelling but the water was really cloudy from all the wind. We went back into town in the afternoon and looked around a little bit and shopped and then got back aboard the ship. Thursday we were in Tortola. It is an island a part of the British Virgin Islands. It was also very beautiful. We took a boat from Tortola to Virgin Gorda and walked to "the Baths". It is a spectacular place with huge boulders all along the coastline. It was really windy that day so they wouldn't let us swim (red flag warning) so we waded, then hiked through caves to another beach where Dad swam. The undertow was strong and the waves were crashing so I just sat on the beach and watched all the people try to swim out to the calm part.
Friday we were in St. Thomas. We hired a cab to drive us to Coki Beach. It was my 2nd favorite day. The beach was gorgeous and the snorkelling was outstanding. We played on the beach and ate our standard picnic.
We took a little tour of the island as we drove back into town and saw Meghan's Bay (one of the 10 best beaches in the world) and then spent the afternoon shopping in world famous (for shopping anyway) Charlotte Amalie. We didn't buy anything too exciting but it is fun looking around. Maybe next time we'll get Dad a Tag Heuer watch.

Saturday it was time to head back to Boise, so we boarded our plane at 11:30 am and flew back to LA (7 1/2 hour flight) and then to Salt Lake, and then on to Boise. It was nice to get home at 10:30 pm (1:30 am to our bodies') after such a long day of travel. We had a wonderful time. I put a link to all the pictures I took and I'll link Dad's pictures on the blog so check them out if I haven't bored you already.