The Reason for that "Save Now" Button

A few days ago my friend April and I got back from an absolutely fabulous Caribbean cruise. It was great and I'm going to try my luck with loading some pictures in here. I'm crossing my fingers my rather novice blogging skills won't hinder the flow of this (i.e. the pictures end up in the right place and all that good stuff). I probably should've been better at keeping a little journal or something, but hopefully my brain will suffice...

Sunday, August 1

I started this trip out by going to bed at like 2:00 because I was up playing late with some cousins and then I had to actually do the whole packing bit. I am not a good packing early sort of a gal. It all came together though and I had made a list, which practically counts as doing it all ahead of time. Two hours later I was up and off to the airport with April. After little sleep and taking the first of many motion sickness pills that basically make you want to fall asleep about 5 minutes after swallowing it, I was out for a good chunk of the flight to Texas. We grabbed some food and settled down to play California Speed to kill our layover. This couple from Kansas or Oklahoma (what's the difference, really?) were watching us for a while and finally asked what we were playing. The guy came over and stood behind April. It was a little funny how interested they were. I guess we made it look really fun! We went on to Puerto Rico and grabbed a taxi to the port. Good golly, that guy was CRAZY. I thought I'd experienced crazy taxi drivers in Turkey and also had a slightly homicidal one in California, but this guy was ridiculous. He was driving this gigantic 15-passenger van and he went careening through heavy traffic like we were invincible. Well, mostly he just swerved around one car that was changing lanes while it was about a quarter of the way in the next lane. I don't know how we didn't hit it. We got on the boat and participated in the "this is what a life jacket is" drill and listened to the spiel that basically says, "Please don't light our boat on fire or we'll actually have to use these here lifeboats you're all packed on deck 4 to look at." Last time I did one of those drills we had to listen to it in like 8 languages, no joke. It was nice to get to go after only English this time.

Monday, August 2



Our first stop was in St. Thomas. We didn't really have a solidified plan of what we wanted to do every day. Actually, we didn't really have a plan for any day. We'd looked a little and had a list of some things we wanted to do at some point, but we got off the boat and figured things out each day. Some worked out a little better than others, but in St. Thomas we were thinking possibly parasailing and we wanted to shop. We decided to shop first, drop off our stuff at the boat and then try to go to the water. There were taxi drivers and tour guides wanting to take us around ALL OVER. We were trying to figure out how parasailing was going to fit in and we came up with a fabulous plan. We walked back over to find the tour guide we had talked to earlier. He was pulling out of the parking lot with his group. On to plan B. We found another guy who was going to take us around and we could keep our same plan, but he needed to fill his car and his passenger count at the time was at a grand total of, including April and me, two. We waited a few minutes for him to try to gather some other takers, but he was not very successful and we weren't in the mood to hang out there anymore. Plan C. We walked about 2 more inches and found yet another guy who was going to take us to the beach as part of the tour. Even better, right? Unfortunately, we didn't have our beach stuff. We went back to the ship, got our junk and then he took us over to town to shop. We did. Not like maniacs (at this point) then we met him again and he took us and these people from Maryland around to see some sights. We took some pictures and then headed to the beach. Parasailing was a little harder to schedule and wasn't ridiculously cheap, so we decided to get our kayaking in here. My Dramamine (motion sickness stuff) had worn off or something cause I wasn't really feeling the greatest after we had paddled out to this little island thing. We went back and swam a little and then laid out then met our taxi driver and went back to the boat, cleaned up and were off to dinner. We signed up to be at a table with other people. We met a mom and daughter, Wanda and Catherine, who were originally from Puerto Rico but currently live in Texas. Later a couple, DuWayne and Chris, who were also from Texas joined us. That was our table for the week and it was a lot of fun to sit and chat with them over dinner. It wasn't the table of attractive, single LDS guys taking a week-long vacation from their terribly successful jobs that April had been hoping for (and I wouldn't have minded), but they were still fun company. After dinner that night, I was feeling a little seasick and I think we were both still a bit tired, so we were kind of bumps on logs and went back to our room.

Tuesday, August 3









So I'm still working on buying a house (another topic for another day) but the loan guy I was talking with right before this cruise asked if I was going to Dominica on my trip. It sounded familiar and seemed like something I should know at that point, so I just said yes. He proceeded to tell me all about how great this place was. I didn't know basically anything about it, but he said the waterfall at the rainforest was an absolute must, so that was all I had in mind for our day in Dominica (pronounced dahm-in-eek-uh). We immediately found a tour that sounded good, so we hopped on the bus (more like a big van) in the front next to the driver and waited a little bit for it to fill up. This ended up being my favorite island and day of our trip. It was absolutely the most gorgeous place I'd ever seen. Some of the islands afterward compared, but this place still was the best, in my accurate opinion. The bus driver wasn't our tour guide like all the other ones we did. This Dominican guy with one leg hopped on the bus as we were about to leave and ended up being our guide. His name was Skippy. I don't want to drive there very badly. They drive on the opposite side of the road and the driver sits where the passenger usually is. The roads are basically always wet. We were driving up this mountain with a cliff off one side and it's not on a nice, wide, well-paved road. Skippy kept assuring us we'd be fine. These hilarious ladies were calling out for mercy and stuff every time we passed a car. They were a little dramatic, but somehow it was all just really funny. In addition to Skippy's accent being really fun to listen to, he was also quite entertaining the whole time. He kept telling everyone that if we saw anything that looked interesting to just say "Skippy, I NEED that" and he'd get it for us. It was hilarious. The people in Dominica were also the least wealthy of any of the islanders we visited, but everyone seemed really nice and friendly. Sure, I was a tourists and only there for a day so I probably don't really know, but it seemed like a friendly place. We went up to a waterfall. I was really intelligent and wore flip flops. It was a rainforest, so surprisingly, it rained and was slippery.I got soaking wet on the hike back from the waterfall. There were these people in our bus who decided to swim in the waterfall and made us all wait an extra 20 minutes longer than we were scheduled, but it was overall really a great tour and a lot of fun. April and I looked around at some of the stands and bought a few things as we were closer to the boat. Everyone had a million coconut necklaces, "wrist bands" (aka bracelets) and earrings. We got back on the boat and showered and cleaned up. At every stop it was so humid that I just felt gross after having been out and about. Dinner was great and April was ready to be more ambitious and exciting after dinner, so we were going to go to the merengue dance class. Catherine from our dinner table was going to meet us, so we went over there later that night. As with every dance class ever, there were more girls that guys. Somehow I ended up with a partner and Catherine and April watched. It should've been April out there, but whatever. We were learning and not really doing a fabulous job. The instructor kept telling the guys that they need to lead and how the girls CAN'T lead. He went on about how bossy women always try to be and stuff. The guy I was dancing with wasn't doing it right though. Anyway, I suddenly realized I was not feeling so great. Poor Greg or Craig or whatever his name was probably thinks I'm really rude, but I grabbed April and told her to dance with him and excused myself. He should've been grateful cause I was really seasick and I don't think he would've appreciated witnessing that. April was nice and forgave me, but I never truly apologized to him even though, of course, I ended up seeing him like 7 other times. I felt better if I was laying flat in bed, so that was the rest of the evening for me and it was also the moment I decided that I was gonna take the full dose of that motion sickness stuff. It was a smart plan cause I was fine for the rest of the trip.

Wednesday, August 4






We went to Barbados. Not my favorite. Not even close to my favorite. I don't know why, but I just didn't love the little tour we took of Barbados. It was pretty and nice enough, but it wasn't all that and a bottle of rum, even though they have a ton of that there. After our tour, we decided to go to the beach, which meant attack of the taxi drivers. April and I were being our indecisive selves as they were all telling us that they would make a deal "just for us" to take us to the beach. After it seemed like a lot of time and money to just be at a beach for a few hours when were were going to more islands later we were just going to do something else, but then we decided to just go. We went snorkeling and saw some fish, a few turtles and I could almost swear a shark. It wasn't a big one, but it really looked like a shark. That was fun and then we laid out at the beach for a bit. Our taxi driver picked us up and we went and cleaned up and did dinner. That night after dinner we went to a juggling and comedian show. The juggler was unbelievable and the comedian was... believable.

Thursday, August 5









St. Lucia. I only knew about this place cause of watching the Bachelor. Ridiculous, I know. It was really pretty there too. Probably my second favorite for how pretty it was, but definitely my least favorite tour. We ended up on a bus with 4 people from Boston. I'm not really sure how they all were related or knew each other, but their group included this lady who was apparently the mother of the brattiest child I have ever met in my life. Seriously. The kid was pretty smart, but SO annoying and SO spoiled. At one point his mom wanted him to be in a picture and he was refusing she told him that he'd lose $100 dollars of his allowance if he didn't get in the picture and smile, so he trudged over and pulled a fake smile which was apparently satisfactory. Oh my gosh. There were also these other two people with them. Maybe the older sister of the hellion and her boyfriend? I don't know. He always wanted to stop every chance possible for a beer since it was only $2. On one of the beer stops there were some people selling things. One of the guys came over to us and asked me if April was my daughter. Thanks, dude. Apparently I look like the mother of a 24-year old. April thought it was pretty amusing. Anyway, a little later on the sister and the boyfriend started yelling at each other. They were swearing and screaming and she hit him with a magazine, and he was certain she nearly ripped of his ear. Oh my goodness. I can't even tell you how annoying these people were. Somehow, this ended up being the island that required the most driving too. We went over to this drive in volcano. Crazy travel companions aside, that sounds cool, right? Yeah, it wasn't. It was just this disgusting sulfur place and they try to convince you to be grateful for the pungent fumes because apparently once those are gone it means the pressure's building inside and we're about to die. I think I wouldn't have minded it blowing. After the noxious volcano fumes we went to this waterfall. Oh, the waterfall. Our driver tells us it's like a 2 minute walk to it. He was right. We walked up. There were a few paths. We walked around. We took some pictures and we left. Unfortunately, April and I were the only ones in our group who decided 10-15 minutes was good. The terrible Bostonians decided to go swimming in the waterfall. We were looking around at the stuff people were selling at the bottom of the waterfall. I got my magnet of the day there. April found some spices to get. We looked some more. This guy with fuzzy ginger necklaces wanted to sell us some. Then he went away. Then he came back cause we were still there. We got him to go away again, but we were STILL there later, so he came back. Apparently we were more convincing in our lack of interest or maybe he sensed that we were growing more irritated. We started to wonder and get really annoyed that they were taking so long. It was SO long before our driver finally would go in to get them and tell them to leave. I didn't really feel like I had the power to march in them and tell them we were leaving since our driver hadn't specifically told us how much time to spend there. We had about an hour and a half drive to get back to the ship and we still hadn't stopped at this other place that had sounded like a good little stop when listening to the taxi people telling us where the tour went. I didn't even care though. The monster of a child decided he wanted to go back to the banana plantation where April and I had gotten a banana cause now he wanted to eat one. He was telling his mom to tell the taxi driver to go back there and get him a banana. She somehow had the sense not to request that of the driver. The kid took matters into his own hands and yelled out to him. The driver didn't respond. It was one of the best parts of that adventure. Along the way back to the ship. the driver stopped and got some bread from some bakery or something. He got some for us to share and it was really good. I was never so happy for a tour to end. I really probably should be more patient, but I let those people get on my nerves! They had a deck party that night. It wasn't really that amazing. Maybe that had a little to do with lingering annoyance or something from the day...

Friday, August 6




I'm a bit long-winded, eh? I'll make this one short. St. Kitts. We shopped. No tours. No beach. We shopped then got back on the boat and ate a little food and went to the pool. I started reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I liked it for the most part. I finished it on the flight home, but got a good start that afternoon. At dinner, we found out that DuWayne and Chris had been on some train ride in St. Kitts and the train derailed. It sounded like everyone was fine except that it was really hot and wasted a lot of their time and Carnival wasn't wanting to give them a refund for it. Surprise, surprise. The cruise line was being unhelpful. Hopefully they'll get it worked out!

Saturday, August 7






St. Maarten was the island I'd be most willing to live on. They drove on the right side of the road, the driver was in the right place in the car, it was nice there, and just seemed most livable. They have a French side and a Dutch side on that island. The Dutch side is a little smaller but basically makes all the money. They have a bunch of casinos, the airport and that's where all the cruise ships stop. Our taxi driver was this guy who grew up on the island and his wife who was from Columbia came along too. We went around with this family that was from Spain. They were really cute and much, much, much better than the St. Lucia bus buddies. The Spanish family was living in Alabama (not really sure why there...) and the wife was talking to them while the husband gave us the tour in English. We went over to the French side and went to a beach. Once we got there we found out that half of it was a nude beach (YIKES!) and, no, we did not go to that part. We stopped in the French capital and looked around and went shopping for a few minutes. It wasn't a lot to see, but it was nice and we did a little more shopping once we got back to the Dutch capital then we went on our water taxi back to our cruise ship. We got back and had to start to pack it all up. In a way it seemed like a long time and in another way it seemed like it went really fast. We had our last dinner and that was good. We got some contact information from our table friends. It was a little sad that it was ending. I liked it and had a lot of fun, but quite honestly I wasn't really unhappy to be coming home at all.

Sunday, August 8












I feel like this post has turned into a journal entry a little bit. I'm not really in the mood to go back and change that at this point, but if you've made it through the post this far, congratulations! We got back to Puerto Rico and April and I had our only excursion booked through the cruise line. Their excursions were all way more expensive than just doing things on your own. We did this through Carnival because since it was the end of our cruise, we weren't really sure if we'd be able to get a tour or anything once we got off. We also had our luggage with us since it was over and doing the excursion through them meant they would keep our luggage for us. We went to El Yunque, the rainforest there. We had a great little tour guide and he talked basically incessantly from the time he picked us up until we were driving out of the rainforest. I don't think it would've been possible fore him to say "mis amigos" more than he did. He did a good job and it was a fun tour. Since we were back in Puerto Rico, our phones were back to no extra fees which was also really great. I didn't use my phone (except for as my watch) the rest of the week. We took a taxi to our hotel and we also got back on the internet there. Cell phones and internet, we made it back to the real world! We figured out what we wanted to do (besides just eat) and went over to old San Juan. Wanda and Catherine had shared some suggestions with us and I had talked to my dad about what to do there too. It was a fun place to look around. We went to the San Cristobal fort over there and that was pretty cool. We got some ice cream from a street vendor and wandered through some shops. It seemed kinda European in how the streets looked with the the cafes, cobblestones and stuff. I liked it. We got a GIGANTIC burrito from a street vendor. We tried not to notice the sweat dripping off his head as he cooked our pollo enormousness. Thinking about it now, it is making me a little sick, but somehow that really didn’t bother me at the time. It was like 5 times the size of a Café Rio burrito. Maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but not too much. We got another taxi back to our Sheraton and wanted to go to the pool. It had closed at 8:00 though, so we just hung out in our room. I hadn’t taken my Dramamine and I was feeling quite peppy and alert, probably much to April's dismay.

Monday, August 9
The pool at our hotel was super pretty. It had a few fountains around it, a waterfall by the huge hot tub and the pool poured over the edge and had a really pretty view. I wouldn’t hate staying there again even though it wasn’t really close to anything. The other taxi drivers weren’t quite as wild as that first guy. Coming home went really smoothly. I was pretty tired on the final leg from Atlanta to Salt Lake and slept for a good chunk of that after reading the first 50 pages or so of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I don’t really know what it’s about, but so far it seems pretty good. I guess we’ll see! My mom and sister, Kristi, came and got us from the airport and I was absolutely exhausted by the time we got home. Like so tired I almost walked into a wall and I was walking down the hall at home. Yeah, kinda embarrassing.

I think I might have one ounce of jet lag or something cause I haven't been able to sleep for more than 6 hours since I've been home, but maybe that's from the Dramamine. Hopefully it'll go away soon! :)