Cruise Pictures

Here are a few pictures from the cruise. As always, we can find all of them at the Gallery link to the right.

The Fort in Old San Juan

Every wonder what an infant lifejacket looks like?

One of the formal nights

The other formal night.

Eating his breakfast of sliced bananas served in silver dishes on our balcony every morning.

Swimming with the Manatees

Still not unpacked, but back out for another day trip.

Melissa and I and some friends headed just north to Crystal River for the afternoon to swim with the Manatees. We found a great tour operator and took a small pontoon out to Three Sister's Spring.

We saw a dozen Manatees swimming away from the Spring before we got in the water, so I was a little worried they might all be gone, but there were still plenty in the sanctuary when we got into the chilly water. Even with full body wetsuits on, the initial dip into the water took your breathe away.

There were seven to eight manatees, including a mother and child, that were patrolling the area. Melissa got a Manatee kiss twice and others came close enough that we could reach out and touch their skin and fell the prop scars on their backs.

We could only take the cold for so long, so eventually we shivered our way out of the water and each had welcomed mug of hot chocolate to help warm up.

We got a bonus dolphin tour on the way back to the marina as two very playful dolphins gave us a show.

Overall it was a great experience and I would highly recommend it to everyone.

P.S. Our camera stopped working right before we got into the water, so no pictures of the manatees, just a few rather entertaining pictures of everyone putting their wetsuits on, that I will refrain from posting.

No Rest for the Weary

We were home less then 3 hours before we were right back out again. Tonight we finished off the trifecta of Fall Wine Events with the 3rd Annual Post-Thanksgiving Wine Tasting.

For the party, everyone brings a bottle of wine for a blind wine tasting contest. Our bottles that we brought the last two years have had dismissal showings. This year we stepped up our game and finished in third place. More importantly, it was just good to have a night out with friends and not have to carry cheerios and diapers with us.

Back on Solid Ground

We are home from the cruise and back on solid ground, although, to be honest, I am still feeling the motion of the ocean.

The cruise was wonderful, although there were definitely a few days of rough seas. We missed the port in Grand Turk due to 45 Knot cross winds, but the other ports more than made up for the miss.

Braydon was a superstar on the cruise. I now know what it was like to travel around with The Beatles. With the mostly older crowd ( and when I say older I mean that wheelchairs outnumbered strollers by 10 to 1), Braydon received plenty of attention.

There much more to say about the cruise, including pictures from Braydon at formal night. Right now, it has been two hours since I have eaten, which is longer than I have gone in two weeks, so I need to grab a bite, and then a nap.

Cruisin'

We have repacked our things for a very different trip we leave for later tonight.

We leave for a 7 day cruise and will be hitting San Juan, St. Thomas (again), Grand Turks, and the Bahamas. We are of course looking forward to all the ports, and Braydon is looking forward the the nonstop parade of food.

Internet access will be limited, but I will post when I can.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone if I don't get a chance to say it before Thursday.

More St John Pictures

There was of course more to our trip to St John then the accommodations. Here is are few more pictures. To see the full compliment of pictures you can check out the Gallery link to the right of the page.

Braydon starring down a dog on the beach.

The view from out tent cabin. So it wasn't all bad.

Braydon was beat after all the work from the hike.

The trail wasn't as easy as advertised.

Taxi's St John Style.

Pictures are the Proof

As promised, here are the pictures from our two very, VERY different accommodations in St John. I will post more tomorrow also.

The "bedroom" in the Tent cabin.

Our Kitchen

Living Room

Yes, they really do make mosquito nets for cribs.

The walkway to the cabin. (The same walkway we had to walk in the middle of the night if we needed to go to the bathroom.)

Switching gears...

Our bed in the Westin (notice a difference?)

The Living Room

Our newer, somewhat more modern kitchen

Relaxing Poolside.

The path to the pool and beach

Melissa 5, Brian 0

For those of you keeping tack at home, that is score for this year. As in the number of trip to Emergency Rooms and Urgent Care Centers.

Tonight makes 5 for Melissa, while I am still miraculously holding down a Goose Egg.

To Recap;

Melissa Urgent Care Trips;

1 for Vertigo Diagnosis
1 for busting her chin open in St John.

Melissa Emergency Rooms Trips

1 for severe abdominal pains
1 for getting electrocuted
1 for Head injuries from St John. (tonight)


Brian Total Trips: 0

Tonight we are in the all too familiar location of the emergency room. They did not have or normal room (half room divided by a sheet) available, but they did upgrade us to an actual room with walls (it pays to be part to the frequent flyer club).

This year has definitely been an anomaly when it comes to these numbers. Prior to this year, in the 13 years that we have known each other, I cannot remember a single time that Melissa went to an Emergency room for her. Even with the numbers this year, I am still have the lead in the all time series by a huge margin.

Right know were are waiting for Melissa to get a CAT scan and then hopefully go home.

Now that I think about it, concerning my post from yesterday, perhaps I should have waited until we got home to write all this.

Not so Fast

Despite the rough beginning to this trip, it was looking to be one of our best trips to date.

A little word of advice. If you ever start thinking about that while still on vacation, STOP! Wait until you get home before you have these thoughts. If you don't, you might jinx it.

Case and point...

This morning as we were packing up to head home, Braydon was sitting the couch in the room. He has learned to climb down off of beds on couches going feet first, but we stills stayed close. (You may think you know where this is going, but you are probably wrong. Braydon is fine.) All of a sudden, Braydon made a move like he was going to dive head first onto the tile floor. Melissa and I both lunged to stop him. Only one of us actually got there.

Braydon stayed on the couch while Melissa slipped on the tile floor and hit chin first on the floor.

Melissa was very calm despite the pain shooting through her body. We quickly iced the two major areas of concern, her chin and jaw, and soon after saw the towel begin used to ice her chin turn red with blood.

Without getting into all the gory details, our last day in St John was spent taking a taxi to the Clinic, having Melissa get her chin DermBonded back together, followed by a very long travel day home made even longer by the pain and discomfort that Melissa was feeling.

We are back home now after a delayed departure from St Thomas, being stuck on the runway in Fort Lauderdale for 45 minutes because some guy on the plane at our gate had to get taken off the plane in handcuffs, and just barely making or connection to Tampa. And oh yeah, Braydon is sick also.

But we are back home and despite this rough day, this trip to St John rates in my top three.

New Favorite Spot?

As our last night in St John comes to a close, I had a realization. It happened while we where eating dinner at the open air Beach Bar, literally steps from Great Cruz Bay. The high mountains lined each side of the bay with scattered lights from a few houses the only way the distinguish the land from water, while a dozen or so sailboats were moored in the bay below.

With this backdrop, I came to this realization;

St John feels to me the way I think an island in the Caribbean should feel.

The backdrop from tonight's dinner, along the laid back atmosphere, the pick up trucks with benches in the back that have been converted into taxis that race up and down the narrow and winding roads and somehow don't crash into each other, the iguanas and roosters that seem to roam freely, and one bay after another of pristine beaches, this island feels right.

For years the Bahamas has always been our go to place. It has always been listed as my favorite place to visit. I must say that St. John is now challenging for that top spot right now.

I think it would take one more trip to over take the top spot, and I would be more then welcome to make that happen.

Travel-aholics

Here is a realization that we have come to recently. We are travel-aholoics. Now some of you may be thinking, "You are just now figuring that out?". Well, you know what they say; Acceptance is the first step.

Do you think you might be a travel-aholic too? Here are some warning signs...

- You begin planning for your next vacation while still on vacation

- You actually go as far as to book flights, hotels, or rental cars while still on vacation.

- When traveling in a location, you talk in terms of "Next time we come back here..."

- You begin to recognize flight attendants from prevoius flights.

- Flight attendants remember you from prevoius flights.

- You go weeks at a time without unpacking, just repacking.

- Travel guides take up the largest section of your book collection at home.



If you or someone you know has experienced some or all of the above symptoms, you might be a travel-aholic. If so, good for you. Enjoy!!!

I Hate it When I'm Right

I hit the nail on the head with my last post.

Boy do we have stories to tell.

I cannot get into all of the details now as I cannot post the pictures to back up the stories. Here is what I can tell you...

-We lasted one night in the tent cabin. Once you see the pictures, you will see why.

-The fact that we even made it one night in the tent cabin is a miracle. Melissa gets mad props for sticking it out and Braydon was a real trooper.

- We upgraded to the "tent suite" for the second night. I use the word upgrade very loosely.

- We hiked the Cinnamon Bay Trail and the American Hill and got a lot more than we planned for due to the severe storms that have recently hit the island. Once again mad props to both Melissa and Braydon.

- God sent some guardian angels in a Jeep Wrangler to save us from the ridiculously long and uphill hike back to the cabin after the hike.

- We checked into the Westin today. Melissa's blood pressure instantly dropped when we walked into the lobby.

- As if air conditioned rooms, warm showers and bug free rooms weren't enough to get us excited, our room was ready for us to check in at 8:30 (does that ever happen?), and the pool that had been closed for weeks due to storms just reopened today.

- In the tale of two vacations, the first was, well, interesting, and second one if off to a great start.


Pictures to come when I get home and then you can really get a feeling for the above.

Stories We Can Tell

After a late night of packing, and before we embark on a long travel day, I went for my usual morning run this morning. As I was running, a Jimmy Buffett song came on my iPod (big surprise). It is not one of his better known songs, but the opening lines go like this...

Talking to my self again,

Wondering if all this traveling is good.

Is there something we'd be doing,

We'd be doing if we could?

"Stories We Could Tell"

Jimmy Buffett

This question is lingering today as we look at the next two and a half weeks and only be home for 4 days, spending nights sleeping in five different locations and visiting 3 different countries.

The answer to the above questions remain to be answered, but I have a feeling I already know the answer.

Changes in Latitudes

It has been a crazy couple of weeks around here. The craziness will likely continue for at least part of the day tomorrow. During the course of the day tomorrow, we will be boarding two planes, a ferry and taxi to get to Maho Bay on St John's in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This is going to be an interesting and over due trip.

The interesting part is that is it really two trips rolled up into one. The first two nights we will be staying in "tent cabins" inside the Virgin Islands National Park. The next two nights we will be staying at the Westin St John's. Can you guess who is looking forward to which part?

The over due part is that we have not been on a vacation since July. As already mentioned, it has been a crazy few weeks and a few days of hiking, snorkeling and relaxing on the beach will be just what we need.

Technical Difficulties

My computer has been on the fritz lately and I have not been able to turn it on let alone blog. I am hoping to have it back tomorrow and I will be in serious catch up mode. I have Halloween, two wine fests, Megan returning from Kenya, and another up coming trip to catch up on. Stay tuned...

Halloween

Up until a week ago, we really had no plans for Halloween. We were just going to hang out around the house and pass out candy. Braydon didn't even have a costume.

Then came along some friends to save the day. With their invite to their Halloween party, we had less than a week to get it all together. Melissa found a great costume and we got home from Epcot just in time for the Halloween Party.

Braydon was a trooper especially considering the long day on Saturday.

Epcot Food and Wine Fest: Take 3

Today was our third year in a row of attending the Epcot International Food and Wine Fest. Each year as been unique in its own right.

The first year was just a week or two before I collapsed at work and was on bed rest before my transplant. Just a year later, we were back with our two month old son. It was different, but at two months, Braydon was mostly just hanging in his stroller. Now this year, at 14 months, Braydon was much more active and aware of everything going around.

As much as things change, there are somethings that stay the same.

Each year we have made it around to all the countries with all (or, almost all) of the group still standing.

The braised ribs and potatoes in Paris are still the best food in the park.

For the end of October, it is too hot.

The British Invasion is the best band in Epcot.

The fireworks show at the end of the night is worth sticking around for.

Welcome Home Megan

Melissa's sister Megan got home from Kenya today. If you have not been keeping up with her blog, check it out. It is a great read from beginning to end.

http://www.isaiah58-7.blogspot.com/