St. Thomas

This is a beautiful area but we definitely did not enjoy the excursion we went on.

The view from our room!

Look at that color!

They took us out to supposedly swim with sea turtles.  However, there were no turtles, the water was murky, and we only saw a couple of silver fish. They were a party boat with lots of alcohol and loud music. Not fun!  But the area was beautiiful!

Then they took us to Honeymoon Bay- again not what they promised.  But we did hop off the boat and enjoy the beauty!

Loved our awesome waiters! And the fun dancing performances!

Check out this ham appetizer

Amber Cove- Part 2

The zipline across the ocean!

The obstacle course scared the crap out of me!  We were harnessed but it was still terrifying. I was so proud I made it through without falling once!  The best part was hearing Corey the whole time saying how much she didnt like the course.  Hal woke up in the morning not feeling weel.  He did the zipline but sat out on a the obstacle course.

Not us but a pic of the course

After, we went to an authentic luncheon by the beach.  We were sitting down when Bob came running towards us from the drink line saying that Hal had passed out.  We raced over and he was out cold on the cement.  Their was a nurse there helping right away and a paramedic showed up quickly after.  Ive never seen Hal so pale!  He was sure he had the flu and it was super scary!  The paramedic drove us back to the ship.  Hal was in the medical room on the ship for a couple of hours while they monitored him and sadly he missed the rest of the excursions!

Amber Cove- Dominican Republic

This is such a beautiful place!!! 

Our excursion was a “wild ride” into the jungle, an extreme obstacle course, and a zipline over the ocean.  They weren't kidding when they said “wild ride”!  The roads we took were unpaved and super bumpy.  We even went through several rivers!  The bumpiness reminded me so much of that old jiggler machine! lol

You could see several places that were damaged by the hurricanes.

 

Where they filmed part of Jurassic Park!

Amber Cove

Day 2- Fun day at sea

We explored the ship, had an amazing Sea Day Brunch, and saw a few great shows!

Funny signs around the ship

Honey nut covered french toast!

It rained the 1st night and the fun day at sea.  We were definitely rocking with the boat!!

Spring Break- Day 1

I can’t even express how excited I was for this trip  We have been planning for it and counting down for over a year!  We had such an amazing time and it confirmed my desire to do a 4 month cruise when we retire, travel the world, and retire in the tropics by the beach!!!

Friday afternoon we drove 1 1/2 hours to Moline, flew to Chicago and then flew to Orlando.  The flight to Orlando was delayed because they overbooked. It was over 12 hours of travel and we were exhausted! We styed at a pretty crappy hotel but they had a shuttle to the port so that was good!

We went to Amber Cove (Dominican Republic), St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, and Grand Turk (my new favorite place in the world!!!!)

The view from the plane of Chicago:

We met up with Hal an Corey for breakfast and then drove to Port Canaveral. I will say we prefer the Miami and Tampa ports over Port Canaveral but it was fun to try a new one!

Look at all the food they loaded!

This ship was so cool! Lots of new things… full basketball court, track, workout areas on track, ropes course, etc.

Heading into the open sea!

Chocolate melting cake

Oh the germs…

It’s been a tough couple of week health wise. I had a stomach virus and missed work (the day before that we had 17 teachers gone). Then  I was pretty sure I had strep and an ear infection. I went to the walkin clinic where the dr told me he was pretty sure I had influenza A and I should go home The test results were negative so it ended up being a virus that mimics the flu. I was miserable all the same.  I had forced relaxation which I desperately needed- but man have i sick issues this year!  Alayna also came down with the same thing and missed a day of school. Ugh!

Netflix, meds, weighted blanket, apple cider, toasted Velveeta sandwiches and soup….

Then Tyler went down hard!  I took him in and he tested positive for Influenza A.  He was down for an entire week!  We quarantined him downstairs and thank heavens none of us have gotten it yet!

We've had crazy weather here, as always, and Im really looking forward to sun and sand in the Caribbean soon!

More snow today…

But look these beautiful flowers are blooming!

Bob took me to Ihop over the weekend for Valentines day and he got me this super cool 3D card!

Happy to get pics this week!

2 of me new favorites: Those faces!!!