March 7, 2013

Dear Children,

Spectacular! The cruise we took to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary was worth the wait and now we want to do it again as soon as we can! As we saw many families traveling together, we both thought that would be a fun adventure to do with the rest of you also!

I have not written a family newsletter since before Christmas but I thought I had better get some thoughts down about our recent trip as the days are already starting to blur together. We took good notes of what we would bring or do differently for our “next” cruise!

We did so many fun things and visited so many wonderful places. I would turn right around and do the same cruise again. The nice thing about our cruise starting in San Juan was that we were able to visit more islands than other 7 days cruises that leave from Florida. We only had one day at sea (without stopping at a port) so we saw 5 different islands in the Caribbean and Virgin Islands: St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Martin and also Puerto Rico.

We started our trip almost two weeks ago with a short stop in Fort Lauderdale for some SendOutCards meetings. We stayed right on the beach at a small hotel that Dad found for a very good price considering the location. We took an overnight Thursday night flight on JetBlue to New York and then an early morning flight to Florida on Friday. On both flights, we were the last two seats so we were VERY lucky to be there. On the red eye flight, a stewardess traveling to work took a jump seat so we could be on; that was amazing!

The moment we stepped off the plane we began to enjoy beautifully warm, sunny weather. It was paradise. Our meetings were great in Fort Lauderdale plus we made time to do some walking on the boardwalk, dip our feet in the Atlantic Ocean and watch some beach "foot" volleyball.  It was like hackie-sack with a volleyball and net; one team being from Spain! We used the trolley and bus system and got around well during the day and a half in Florida. We want to come back and take the water taxi that goes up and down the canals for an all day experience to see the sights. We need to go back!

Our flight to Puerto Rico left at midnight so we arrived at the San Juan airport at 3:30 am their time. We thought we could sleep in the airport until our bus transfer to the ship but it was very cold (they like their air conditioning)! Needless to say, I am not sure we will take a late night flight to save time in the future.

Luckily, when we arrived early on the dock, we learned that we could board early. We checked in, had the first of our never-ending buffet lunches and then headed into old town San Juan for some exploring. It reminded us a lot of Spain with its cobblestone, narrow roads. We took a city trolley tour and then found a local music festival and enjoyed watching the people dance. Our ship had a large group of Puerto Ricans so we continued seeing a lot of salsa dancing throughout the cruise and tried to learn some.

We sailed away to St. Thomas at 10:00 in the evening and had fun learning some new dances, Cupid Shuffle and Gangnum style, and celebrating the beginning of the cruise. There was entertainment each evening and comedy shows to enjoy. We tried to take advantage of so many activities on board and exploring the islands so most nights we were exhausted as we headed to bed.  It was a fun exhaustion!

On the island of St. Thomas we had scheduled a 6 hour tour including shopping, island history and beach time at Magen’s Bay. We were not really interested in the shopping part but used that time to get in a lot of walking as we went up and down all the streets in that part of town. The historical tour was great and the beach time was fabulous. We learned about an even better beach for the next time we return!

After St. Thomas we had a day at sea as we traveled to the southern most island of our trip, Barbados. We both got very sunburned that day since we waited about an hour to put on your sunscreen, not realizing how intense the sun was even in the morning hours. We have already peeled from that sun exposure! This day was relaxing and fun with lots of lounging around, dancing and going down the water slide. Our day at sea was also a dressy evening for dinner. It was our second night to eat in the formal dining room. The food was so good. I think it was lobster night and Dad ordered three lobster entrées! We both enjoyed picking out several dishes and appetizers so we could taste things we have never had before like alligator!

Barbados was a favorite island. We had a formal tour lined up on this day; it was a catamaran tour and snorkeling adventure. It was beautiful and because we booked it on a site other than Carnival’s main site, it was a small group. Dad and I love to snorkel and this started days of snorkeling for us. Besides the fun of snorkeling off the side of a boat to see turtles and other fish, it was also so beautiful to see all the beaches from the catamaran ride. On the way back we got a taste of racing as our captain was giving strategy advice to one of the people on board as he raced some of the other sail boats back to the harbor. The weather was amazing. Dad said it was never under 75 degrees but you wouldn’t know it since there was usually a slight breeze.

We didn’t have anything planned for St. Lucia. We both like learning something of the history of the island but also wanted to just get to a beach and snorkel. On this day we walked off the ship and started talking with a taxi cab driver who made a deal with us to drive us around to some of the best spots, take us to a nice beach and then pick us up when we were done. Of course, they like to do the tour part since they take you to all the spots that have their friends as vendors! We stopped at an interesting batik “factory” with a gorgeous view of the island. This is the day that we stopped by the side of the road where they were growing bananas and bought some fresh bananas. They actually didn’t taste any different than what we have here. We ended the afternoon by taking a short ferry ride to a beach at the Marigot Beach Club. It was good that it was later in the day since we had lots of sun the three days prior.

On St. Kitts we found a wonderful beach, Carambola, that I would like to return to someday. We rented chairs and an umbrella and relaxed or snorkeled the entire day. The place was kind of new and it even had warm showers! If we were hungry, everyone reported that they had great food that they brought out to your chairs.  Now that is luxury! On this day, Dad and I took advantage of the clear, calm waters and did some long swims out into the ocean in between snorkeling. We both saw squid in these waters. This island is known for its monkeys. Dad saw some by the beach and at the ship dock, islanders had their pet monkeys in diapers and ready to earn money for the photo opportunity! This is the evening that we stood on deck and watched the ship come out of the harbor. We both decided that we would be less scheduled next time and miss our dinner hour to be on deck while the ship moves out of the harbor and for the sunsets.

Our last island was St. Thomas. We were slower to get off the ship as we were getting tired! We found a beautiful beach just minutes from the dock and stayed there the rest of the day. We snorkeled our farther than on any other day. We rounded a cove and found a floating bar out on a point in the ocean. We swam so long that I was getting cold so we swam to a beach covered in rock to warm our bodies form being in the water so long. This beach was in front of a resort that I would love to come back to also!!! There was a regatta going on all day around the island so there were thousands of sailboats in the water and I tried to get a photo of them.

We were one of the last groups off the ship when we docked in San Juan. We weren’t in a hurry to go to the airport. Our flight ended up being full so we spent an extra day in Puerto Rico. We stayed in kind of a dive but it was close by the beach in a beautiful area called Isla Verde. We walked on the beach quite a ways right before sunset and then stopped in a hot tub at one of the beachside resorts. On the way back to our place we stopped at a local small restaurant for some real island found with plantain and yucca root.

We spent quite a while rerouting ourselves and not flying Jet Blue back since we couldn’t see how full they were. We flew Air Tran into Orlando, then Southwest into Las Vegas. Our Las Vegas flight to Portland was very delayed so we called Aaron and he picked us up and took us back to the airport the next morning. I had to cancel some appointments on that Tuesday but it was worth it to stay at Aaron’s overnight. Since we were flying west on our anniversary, we gained four hours to the day so our anniversary lasted 28 hours!

We came home to rain and cold and are ready to go back! It has been hard to get back into a routine. Our trip was so wonderful. We would love the whole family to be able to experience a fun cruise together. I will catch up and write about our holidays one of these days! We love you.