March 28th-Our last post!

Well, our wonderful trip is over and we are at home unpacking now. We had alot of fun and enjoyed all your comments about our blog. It was fun and we hope you all enjoyed it too. Hopefully next time I will learn more on how to add pictures, etc.
We had a good flight home but didn't get back to California until very late on Sunday night so Monday was not fun getting back into the swing of things!

I am currently downloading my 700 pictures as I write this! I deleted almost 200 of them. If you 'd like to see them just email me at:
clynam@cbnorcal.com and I will forward you the Shutterfly link.

Hope you all have a wonderful 2010.
Until next trip....
Cathy & Mike

March 27th-Sea Day #2

Well it is our last day on the cruise and it is a “sea day”. Last night we discovered we were supposed to meet at 9:15am in the Casino area to disembark, but that wouldn’t give us enough time before our flight, so I had to go down to the desk to get it changed and buy a transfer pass to the airport.

I wanted to get Mike to the gym today since it was our last day but I gave him the choice of walking the Promenade Deck again or going up to the gym. He said we would walk the deck. So, I said we have to do at least 2 miles and he said “I’ll see your 2 miles and raise you a mile”……haha……so I said, “I’ll see your 3 miles and raise you a mile”……to which he said, “I’ll see your 4 miles and subtract 2 miles!!” But since he already agreed to 3 miles we walked 3 miles!

We got done with our walk and had a light breakfast. My plan was to go to the Princess Theatre to watch the movie, “Precious” at 10:30am and Mike was entering a Texas Hold’em tournament. Well, we went by the casino to register Mike but when we walked to the theatre they were having a cooking demonstration and no movie. So, I went to the Purser’s Desk to grab a “Princess Patter” and discovered that the movie was going to be at 10:30pm not am…….uggg! So, I stayed at the cooking demonstration which was followed by a tour of the galley (kitchen) and that was cool. Mike made it to 3rd place in the tournament but it only paid through 2nd place.

I came back to the room and did a load of laundry so we wouldn’t have to put dirty clothes in our suitcases and then we went upstairs for lunch and played cards for awhile while the laundry washed.
After lunch Mike took his afternoon nap and I went up to the pool deck where I saw some dolphins jumping and a wedding taking place. I found a lounge chair in the shade (hard to find) and read my kindle for about 3 hours. It was fun watching all the people dance in the pool to the Caribbean Music. They did a conga line and everyone was having so much fun. I guess I should have been going to the pool area more often. After Mike’s nap he joined me on a lounge chair and read for awhile. We had a daiquiri and it was so yummy!

We came back to our room around 6:00pm to watch the sunset and it was a good one tonight. We had our last dinner in the dining room and said goodbye to our waiters. Then we had to pack all of our things. What a hassle after 2 weeks. We got it all in and had to put our suitcases out in the hall by 11:00pm tonight. Now we are down to our carry-ons and hopefully didn’t forget or need anything. We are paying our last respects to the casino and off to bed for an early wakeup call tomorrow.

I will write one last blog when I get home and settled. Until then……
Hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed writing them. Now at least I will be able to remember what we did and where!

Cathy & Mike

March 26th-Barbados

The islands earliest inhabitants were the Arawak Indians, a tribe from South America. In 1536, a Portuguese explorer discovered Barbados (meaning the “Bearded Ones”). Barbados became a plantation island, and slaves were brought to cultivate the cane fields. George Washington came to the island with his brother, Lawrence, for a vacation. Unfortunately for George, he contracted the smallpox that took his life. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Barbados’ economy followed the sugar trade’s success.
In 1966, Barbados became an independent nation, administered by a Governor General appointed by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, and a Prime Minister representing the majority party in the House of Assembly.

Well, this is our last stop because tomorrow is a sea day. We both woke up many times last night because we ate too much for dinner! Can you say indigestion? When I finally got out of bed we were pulling into Barbados at 7:30am. I woke Mike up and we went down to the Promenade deck to walk 2 miles while we docked. The port in Barbados is all commercial so it isn’t very pretty at all. In fact it is one of the worst ports for pictures. We walked around the ship 6 times and watched the guys tie us up to the dock.

We still have about 2 hours before our last excursion so we went up to the buffet to have some breakfast and we played cards. When it was time to go, we got off the ship and went through the terminal to meet our bus. We were taking the “Finest Blends of Barbados” tour, which is a tour of the “Mount Gay Rum Factory” and the “Banks Brewery”. It wasn’t one of our favorite tours since both places weren’t running today and we couldn’t take pictures inside of them.
Our options were limited since we’ve already done so much this past two weeks. Anyway, it was nice to see Barbados but it wasn’t our favorite stop.

We shopped a bit at the terminal shops when we returned and then we got back on the ship. We weren’t hungry for lunch so we just went to the “International Café” and had a snack and a latte while we played cards again.

It is our last formal night tonight for dinner and I can hardly eat another bite! I am going to have to fast for a month when we get home. I have fallen into some bad habits in this past two weeks and need to get back on course again.

After waking up Mike from his nap to watch the sun set in Barbados, we got ready for dinner. We took pictures of each other on the balcony in our dress up clothes. We went to dinner and didn’t even finish our food……….enough is enough! Then we headed up to the “Movie Under the Stars” and watched “New Moon”. We didn’t even have room for popcorn or ice cream cones this time! It’s really nice outside right now and it is 10:45pm.

We are on the way to San Juan and it will be our last day.
I will blog again tomorrow but not on Sunday. I will have to do our last blog when we get home. Maybe then I could add some pictures if anyone is interested. I think I’ve taken close to 1,000 so it will take awhile to download all of them.

Tata for now,
Cathy & Mike

March 25th-St. Lucia

Christopher Columbus had traditionally been given credit for discovering St. Lucia in 1502, but some relatively new theories challenge this view. St. Lucia was alternately occupied by British and French forces as they battled for control of the West Indies. In 1802, the Treaty of Paris established France’s sovereignty over the island, but by the following year, the two nations were at war again. The 1814 Treaty of Paris ceded St. Lucia to Britain, and the island remained a British possession until 1967, when it became a self-governing associate state of Great Britain. In February 1979, St. Lucia became an independent nation within the British Commonwealth. The island is 238 square miles with 160,000 population. The main language is English.

This morning we woke up and watch our arrival into St. Lucia. It was pouring rain and didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon. It was 7:00am and we were planning on doing a Zipline tour today. We ate breakfast and then had to meet on the dock. We met our tour guide in the pouring rain and got into a van which drove us up the mountain on windy roads for about ½ hour. We got up to the Rain Forest Sky Ride Park and the guides put our equipment on us. I think we got the best guides; their names were LaToya and Akim. We boarded a gondola which took us through the Rain Forest for about ½ hour and it was beautiful. It rained on us but we put rain ponchos on and made it to the top. We hiked for about 20 minutes through the rain forest and got onto the first platform for the zipline. It was so much fun.  We did 11 ziplines and then hiked back up to the drop off spot to take the gondola down. After our ride back to town we walked around and shopped a bit but didn’t buy anything. It was still raining and we were getting hungry for lunch (it was about 2pm). We got back on the ship and went up for lunch where we played cards. After Mike whipped my butt in “Nickels” we came back up to the room and Mike napped while I went to the gym. I decided after he slept for 2 hours that I would wake him up and have him walk around the ship on the walking track. It stopped raining and was nice out. We took some more pictures and walked around the ship until the ship left St. Lucia heading for Barbados.

Tonight was our dinner at “Sabatini’s” and OMG my tummy hurts. It was a 17 course meal (which of course I didn’t eat) but Mikey liked it. I did however eat more than I should have. It was so delicious.
Our reservations were at 7:00pm and we didn’t get done until 10:00pm. Now I just want to curl up and cry! The menu was so extensive I was going to post some of it but the thought right now is just too much.

I must go lay down now and stretch out my stomach so that I can get to sleep.
We only have a couple more days left. It actually seems like a long time away from home but it’s been wonderful too.

Until tomorrow,
Mike and Cathy

March 24th-Antigua

Christopher Columbus sighted Antigua on his second voyage to the Americas in 1493. He named the island Santa Maria de la Antigua at that time. The British mispronounced the name as “An-tee-ga” and it has remained so ever since. Sir Christopher Odrington, a sugar planter, came from Barbados in 1674. The islands sugar economy was dependent on slave labor so when slavery was abolished in 1834 the economy was hit hard. Despite the collapse, sugar remained an important industry in Antigua. In 1967, led by V.C. Bird, Antigua achieved Statehood with Britian. On November 1, 1981, Antigua achieved full political sovereignty, with V.C. Bird as Prime Minister. Antigua is 108 square miles and has a population of about 70,000. They speak English and use US currency as well as the Eastern Caribbean Dollar.

Woke up early again this morning and watched the ship dock in Antigua. The water isn’t very deep and the ship is really stirring it up a lot. We got ready and rushed up to breakfast. We only had about 20 minutes and then we had to meet in the Princess Theatre for our excursion. We got into a taxi and drove across the island to the North Coast where we got onto a speed boat. The speed boat then took us across the water through the mangroves to a floating platform. We were excited to go kayaking for our first time! We had some brief instructions and then we got on our two person kayak. Ladies in front and the guys in the back….. They said that the guys would be doing the work and steering but I’m not quite sure that’s how it went! First of all I couldn’t see Mike back there so who knows what he was doing and second of all he couldn’t see in front of me! I think we worked well as a team since he did what I told him to do!! We kayaked for about an hour and saw different kinds of sea creatures. Then we went back to the platform and got back on the speed boats where we headed over to “Bird Island”. Mike went snorkeling and I hung on the beach with some other people. When they were done snorkeling we all hiked up a hill and saw one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. It looked like a fake background. We saw two blow holes and took some pictures. We hiked back down and boarded the speed boats to go back to the departure point where we took the taxi back to the ship.
It was a long day but so much fun. That was a lot of exercise and now Mike is sound asleep. Poor guy!

It is 3pm now on Wednesday and I am doing another load of wash to get us through the rest of the week. We should be leaving Antigua in a couple of hours and heading for St. Lucia.

We got ready for dinner early tonight and went to the lobby and watched the juggler. He was really good. Then we went to one of the bars and played cards for about an hour. We decided to eat alone tonight and got the same table that we had last week with bad service. Anyway, we didn’t get done with dinner until late but they had wonderful biscotti and amaretto cookies for dessert.
We went into the casino for a bit but didn’t win anything, then we went to our room. We are both exhausted and have to get up early tomorrow for another wonderful day.

Until then,
Mike and Cathy

March 23rd-Tortola, British Virgin Islands

In 1648 a settlement was built by Dutch buccaneers on Tortola. In 1666, English planters seized Tortola and annexed the islands in 1672. For almost 150 years after the British took over, Tortola was the home to many pirates. In the 1700’s, planters and Quakers took over and made the island prosper with sugar, cotton, indigo and rum. The British Virgin Islands became a separate colony in 1956, and then in 1967, a new constitution gave the islands a ministerial system of government.
The island is only 36 square miles with a population of 21,000. They speak English and use the US dollar.

We woke up this morning before the ship docked even though we had time to sleep in. I guess I should say I woke up and decided Mike should get up too! We watched the ship pull into the dock and then we headed up to the gym. Our excursion isn’t until 1pm and I’m excited about it. It is the morning now but I will fill you in later today………

We had a quick bite to eat for breakfast and walked into town to shop a bit. I bought a cute sundress that I’m planning on wearing to dinner tonight. We rushed back to the ship to change into our swimsuits and lather up the suntan lotion then we got ready for our excursion.

Ok, were back from our amazing excursion…..we went to the “Baths at Virgin Gorda”. Virgin Gorda is a separate island near Tortola. We got onto a large boat and took a 45 minute ride to Virgin Gorda and then hopped onto an open air taxi truck that took us to the baths. When we got there they told us we could hike 20 minutes to this beach called “Devils Bay” and then go through the “caves” arriving at the “baths” or just walk to the “baths”. Well since we didn’t want to miss a thing we did it all! It was awesome. We walked along this wooded trail that ended up at “Devils Bay” and when you came around the corner it opened up to this unbelievably gorgeous beach (I can’t even explain it). Then we walked through caves where the water came in and out of. At the end of the caves you came upon what they call the “Baths”. Ok, so I fell and cut up my knee and toe………such a dork……..who knew moss was slippery! The whole area is a bunch of huge (and I mean huge) boulders that surrounds bodies of water that you can swim in. The water is so clean and pure. You’ll just have to see the pictures……….paradise! Unfortunately after I fell I couldn’t swim because the salt water burned my cuts. Mike had a great time swimming in the baths and I took pictures. We sat on the beach for about an hour and then hiked up to where we started. They have a restaurant/pool area where we had Rum Punch.
We took the taxis and boat back to the ship and got back around 5:00pm.

We rested a bit and watched the ship sail away at 6:00pm then headed down for dinner. We met some people from Canada again and another couple who had met in China where she was teaching English and he was teaching Russian. They are an odd couple! She writes text books and is now writing one in Farsi. Interesting! The girls from Canada were sisters and one of them has been living in Ireland for 18 years now and has an Irish/Canadian accent! We always have such a great time meeting all these new people.

So, Mike is winning millions in the Casino now and I am up in the room relaxing and writing my blog.
We have more fun excursions tomorrow so I think I’ll get some rest.

Enjoy,
Cathy & Mike

March 22nd-St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands lured more foreign nations than any other territory. The flags of six countries have flown over the islands. Settlements date to 1500 BC, and people lived here 1,000 years before.

Not much history for me to tell since we were just here last week!
So I set the alarm for 7:00am but got up at 6:40am to go to the gym before our long day of excursions.
The gym was crowded……much younger group this week……much to my dismay.
All the macho guys were using up the weights and machines. I hate to work out with them! It was too early to use the treadmills so I opted for 45 minutes on the elliptical even though my ankles are still swollen.

I came back up to the room to wake up Mike and after a quick bite to eat we got off the ship to explore on our own. We got into a cab (which is an open air vehicle) and took it to Havensight where we bought tickets to go up on a Sky Tram. We went up about 9:30am until about 11:30am. The sights up there were amazing and we took lots of pictures of the city. We took a hiking trail and saw some cool landscaping too. After we came down we got onto another taxi to head back to the dock just in time for our scheduled excursion. We met up with a couple from our ship that was on our tour yesterday and hung with them a bit. We went to “Coral World” which was a submarine ride and an aquarium type park. We saw lots of fish, turtles, sting rays, starfish, and iguanas. The iguanas were everywhere and we had to watch where we walked. We came back from the tour around 4:30pm and now were resting (or I should say Mike is!) before we get ready for dinner.

Tonight is formal night again and we tried to get into one of the nicer restaurants called, Sabatini’s, but they were booked so we are going there on Thursday night.

We had a nice dinner at a table by ourselves again and the only thing we don’t really like is the fact that the menus are all the same as last week. The movies and entertainment are the same too. I guess we just have to do the opposite of what we did last week and deal with it. We went to see the comedian (even though Mike doesn’t like comedians) and he was pretty funny. I caught Mike laughing a time or two!
Then we went to the casino for a bit but it was really crowded.

We have a late excursion tomorrow so we get to sleep in and go to the gym at a reasonable hour.

Until tomorrow,
Mike and Cathy