Day 4- Aruba

Our first stop was Aruba! We had reserved a jeep tour of the island that included historical stops, lunch, an ostrich farm, and snorkeling~ all that would take us around the entire island (it isn't that big). When we made the reservations it said that we would be driving our own jeep and that there would be some four wheeling. Little did we know, it would be all four wheeling (except for being right in town- which wasn't much). It had poured all day long the day before we got there and it sprinkled a little bit while we were there. So, the dirt roads were full of puddles and pits. If any of you have been on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland~ that is the best way I can describe it. Except instead of lasting for 4 minutes, it was all day long! I am so thankful that I was still on Dramamine (for motion sickness on the boat) so I didn't get sick. It was pretty intense, but so much fun!!!

The landscape was so diverse. Along the coast were beautiful beaches and palm trees, but then right next to it there were cactus EVERYWHERE! It was a strange sight.

At each stop they gave us some history of the island. Korby would stand with the group and listen intently while I wondered off and took pictures! All I remember about this lighthouse is that is was the first one on the island and it is really old.

The most famous tourist spot on Aruba was a natural bridge. However a year or so ago it collapsed. This is another, much smaller one, right next to it. It was pretty disappointing to just see a pile of rocks. But this was still beautiful.

This is the opposite side of the island from the port and it is not populated at all. It was beautiful to see that much coast undeveloped. You can see the road here, but it doesn't really do it justice as to just how uneven, un-groomed and overly bumpy it was!

This picture shows the wishing stones. Again~ I didn't hear too much of what the guide was saying, but what I did get was that people would write down a wish and then make a pile of 5-7 rocks on top of the wish to make it come true. The beach was literally covered with them.

Here are Korby and I in front of an old gold refinery. It was incredible! I didn't hear how old it was, but it was really old! It was amazing to see how basic their building skills/materials were ~ but look at how precise their windows were! It was impressive.

Another stop was a cave. It was very different than being in the US. People were touching everything, gum was stuck on rocks, people had carved their names in the rocks~ it wasn't regulated at all. It was beautiful and a little creepy at the same time. They only took you in a little ways, but they flashed their lights to show where it kept going~ and it kept going for a long time. I was thankful we didn't have to go too far in.

And for some reason (we never really heard a straight answer) they had soldiers guarding the entrance to the cave?! We were told it was part of their training. What were they being trained to do~ sit around and do nothing next to something that doesn't need to be guarded?

This might be one of my favorite shots! This was one of the most beautiful beaches, but only if you looked at it from the right angle! Because the rest of the view is disturbed by the giant refinery about 100 yards away! What an interesting combination!

This was one of the beaches that we stopped at to snorkel. I promised Korby that I would try snorkeling again (I tried it for a second in Mexico, but didn't like it at all). I thought that it would be different in clear blue water with better fish. Korby was pretty excited for me to snorkel with him this time. I was all ready to go!

It didn't take me long to realize that I HATE snorkeling~ regardless of the location! I was in the water for about 30 seconds, saw about 5 fish and then booked it back to the beach! But I did try!
So, while everyone else went snorkeling, what else would I do besides take pictures?! I found this crab. I have never seen one in the "wild" this big before. You can't really tell from the picture, but when he was standing up on his legs, he was about the size of a cantaloupe! It was crazy! Since he was so big, it made it easy to see where the expression "crabby face" came from. He had the meanest scowl!


This is just a picture taken in town. There was a lot of poverty and everything was pretty old and run down. But everything was so colorful that it created a different kind of beauty than we usually associate with beautiful homes in the US.

This picture does not do it justice~ but this was the craziest part of the day. This hillside was sooo.... steep and sooo.... slippery and soooo.... uneven and soooo.... full of boulders it was sooo... scary! We watched the jeep in front of us slide down about 30 yards with the brakes on~ they couldn't stop! The driver behind us actually refused to drive down, so one of the guides had to drive his jeep down and then run up the hill to drive the other jeep down. I don't know what was worse~ driving down or driving back up?! On the way back up, the jeep in front of us went the wrong way on one section, got stuck and had to reverse back down. Everyone in the back was screaming, they came really close to rolling over (which they would have just kept rolling all the way down the hill into the ocean!), there were little girls in the jeep behind us crying because they were too scared to keep going, a couple of people got out of the jeeps and hiked up the hill because they didn't want to ride in the jeep! It really was INSANE!!!

I guess all the terror was worth it to see this beach! You couldn't really snorkel here~ it was very rocky but very beautiful!

Not pictured is the ostrich farm that we went to. We stopped there for lunch and then got a tour of the grounds. It was raining, so the camera stayed in my backpack. They let you feed them and pet them. The best part was seeing 5 baby ostriches! They were so "little"~ only about 18" tall, with soft, pretty feathers~looking nothing like the ugly grown ups.

The jeep tour was supposed to end at 5 and the ship was leaving at 6. We got back to the ship at 5:40 (and only because they made a detour to bring us back to the ship because I had a spa appointment to get to). We were getting kind of frustrated with our guide, because he wasn't really trying to hurry up. He just kept telling us that we were on "Caribbean time" and to go with the flow. But if we hadn't kept bugging him, we would have missed our ship! So thank goodness for my spa appointment!

So, my spa appointment... the day before, on the ship, I won a free scalp, neck and shoulder massage and 1/2 off of a seaweed wrap. The seaweed wrap was interesting~ it felt good, but I don't know if I would do it again. The scalp, neck and shoulder massage on the other hand was HEAVENLY!!!! My head was drenched in oil the rest of the night, but it was worth it!

After that, we ate dinner, sat in the hot tub and went to bed very tired, but very excited for the next day!

Day 3- Sea Day

At this rate it will be December before I get though posting about this cruise. My goal is to be done with it before Halloween, or I am never going to be able to catch up on everything we have been doing since we got back.

Luckily, this is a quick one! Our first full day of the cruise was a sea day. I had every intention of bringing my camera around with me so that I could document what we did on the ship, but that just seemed to be the exact opposite of what I was supposed to be doing~ relaxing! I wanted to enjoy not having any responsibilities, any obligations, not knowing what day or even what time it was. We got to sleep in, work out, eat, play miniature golf, rock climb, eat, watch a volleyball tournament, play cards, eat, and see a couple of variety acts and comedians. That night was one of the formal dinner nights. We didn't go too formal~ but it was still fun to get all dressed up and not worry about if someone was going to pull on my necklace or get their dirty paws all over my dress. It was a great day to be at sea!

Day 2- San Juan

On Sunday we opted for a change of scenery, rented a car and drove out to the rainforest. It was amazing how much the landscape could change over quite short distances. It was so lush and so green! Beautiful!

This is the view out of a look out tower in the middle of the rainforest. There was so much moisture in the air~ and here you can see the clouds coming down on the mountain top.

From that same look out tower you can see an isolated house built up off the ground on the bottom right of the picture and San Juan on the shore in the upper left corner. Like I said~ not much distance between the two, but a dramatic change in landscape.
We went on a hike down to a waterfall. At the start of the hike was this drinking fountain. I just like how they tried to make it look more natural.
All along the way there were small open air buildings. It took us a while to figure out what they were for~ there are very sudden down pours and they are meant to provide shelter during the rain. (We didn't experience it on this hike, but later in the week we got a taste of it!)
There was such a large variety of foliage! These trees were one of my favorites! The branches were soooo... thin and LONG. They were one of the tallest trees and their branches wove themselves all over the place~ it reminded me of an octopus! At some points you could see one of the branches but you couldn't see the tree anywhere because the branch had grown so far away from the trunk of the tree. It was bizarre! Here's one of the leaves from the tree above~ CRAZY!!!! They were the largest leaves I have ever seen! The stems were about 10-12 inches long. I carried one all the way out to bring it home to Shayden (she has been learning about leaves in her class right now and this would have been an AWESOME show and tell). After leaving the rainforest and driving for 10 minutes we got back out of the car and it was completely shrivelled up! It had so much moisture in it when we left the rainforest, and the air changed so much in that 10 minutes that it was dry as a bone and crumbled in your hands. At least I got a picture of it.

I was very thankful that this was the extent of "wildlife" that I encountered during the hike. I am not very keen of bugs/insects. So I was happy that this little lizard (about 4 inches from nose to tail) was all I saw!
The hike to the waterfall was beautiful. The water was FREEZING!!!! I don't know how these boys got in, I dipped my toes in and that was enough. Besides, who else would have taken the pictures of them in the water?!
Instead, I spent my time playing with the new filter I got for my camera and admiring the pedicure I got before leaving on vacation!

There were some gorgeous flowers! They ranged from very exotic and fragrant to inpatients! It was funny to see such a variety!

This was awesome! This guy was doing karaoke/ preaching from his car on the side of the road. He would sing a song (it's hard to see, but he's got a microphone in his hand) and then talk for a minute or so and then start singing again. I didn't understand one word of it, but it certainly was entertaining!
This was one of the buildings you could see from our hotel swimming pool. It caught my eye and it took me a while to figure out what it was that seemed off to me~ can you see it?! Almost every window in the building is different!
We spent most of the day in the rainforest. We did a little bit of shopping and had dinner, along with another gelato, before leaving to get on the boat. We took a taxi to the dock and as we were unloading our bags, paying the driver, getting the tags on our luggage, getting our passports and cruise documents out, we didn't notice that Korby's backpack didn't get taken out of the van! It only took us a second to realize, but the cab had already pulled out. The guy helping us with our luggage took off sprinting down the road and actually caught up with the cab! There wasn't anything irreplaceable in his bag, but needless to say that guy got a pretty good tip.

So begins our cruise.... We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas. There were about 3,100 passengers along with 1,500 staff! It was huge!!! We spent most of the night just walking around the boat, trying to get a bearings of where everything was, sitting in one of the 7 hot tubs and unpacking! It was a very full and very long day!

Day 1- San Juan

Ready for an onslaught of pictures?! I thought you were. Don't worry~ I won't disappoint! Since I came back with just over 600 pictures on my camera I thought it would be best if I broke up our trip into 1 hour increments!!! Then I thought that might be a little too overwhelming, so I am going to just post 1 day at a time.

Late last Friday (October 3rd) we kissed our kids goodbye and sent them off to a variety of family and friend's houses, while Korby and I along with another couple set off for San Juan, Puerto Rico! We arrived Saturday early afternoon. We dumped our luggage at the hotel room and set off to explore old town. I didn't really pay attention to the historical details of everything (that is Korby's job) I just took pictures of things I thought looked cool.

Along the edge of big chunks of the island they had built forts to protect their city. It was amazing!

This was a very run down part of town, but if you look closely you will see a Dish TV on top of almost every house! I guess there are just some things you can't live without!

It was amazing to see how the city has just built around the fort (the stone wall in the background).

At the edge of the island, where the largest part of the fort was, there was a large green park where people were picnicking, flying kites, walking dogs, running, it was beautiful.

There were look out towers all along the fort walls and sections that used to be used for cannons.

Right in the middle of the big open area was this beautiful cemetery! We couldn't get down to it on foot, but we got some beautiful views of it from the top of the wall.

I caught a bird in flight and it validated my "special" artistic rendition of a bird in flight~ by drawing the letter "V!"
This monument probably had some important information and facts on it, but oh well, my lens didn't zoom in that far! One of the look out towers. You could walk down into them. It was an amazing view.
While walking through old town I was totally drawn to the balconies. They were beautiful! So many different colors and most of them so well maintained (which was impressive for how old and run down parts of the city were).

The stained glass in this door was beautiful. I wish you could see all the vibrant colors in it better.
All of the doors and windows on ground level had bars on them. But instead of the ugly, straight black bars that you would see in the US, they were all so ornate and decorative. In this picture you can see right into the person's house.
Most of the building were attached to each other. But each one was very unique. From the architecture, the window style, the balcony, the color, just about everything was different from one building to the next. I have never seen a more colorful city!
This is just a store front. I love the contrast of colors, the sharp lines and the shadows that add to the dimension of the picture.

After we explored the city, and as the sun was setting, we went to a nice dinner. Then went and got gelato (delish!!!!) and walked on the sandy beaches of San Juan. By our hotel, which was pretty close to the beach, they were having a cultural festival with singing and dancing, along with a string of street vendors! It felt so surreal to be there, but so wonderful at the same time. All this, and we still have 7 more days to go!!! Until then....

Bon Voyage

Korby and I are leaving tonight for a 7 night Caribbean cruise!!! When we get back I am sure I will have more pictures than I will know what to do with. Until then.......