Pictures from my 30th

Look what I found! Pictures on my camera from my 30th!

I really didn't even remember we took these - I was so miserable with a cold on my birthday and from a grueling day at work that it all just seems like a blur.

I got these beautiful cupcake flowers sent to me at work from my loving brother, sister in law and nephews. It was a great way to start my day! Is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen?? Seriously - Flowers for cupcakes- frigging adorable!

My good friend brought me a cupcake to work and I indulged in that on my birthday night!

Low key - quite - perfect for the sick birthday girl!

Welcome to the 3rd Decade

Well it's for real now - Adam and I are both now in our 3rd Decade. Pretty exciting stuff, eh?

I've learned over the past 11 years Adam and I have been together that it's really fun having someone to "share a birthday with". Our birthdays are exactly two weeks apart, so it's nice to have someone right there with you to celebrate the big birthdays, the scary birthdays and the ones we'll just re-live for a few more years :)

So far 30 is good to both of us - we're both very happy to be out of the 20s.

The 20s are so strange. Early 20s the only milestone you have is 21. And 20-22/23 you're in college, partying, having fun - I mean studying - Studying hard and finding jobs.

Then once college is over, the 20s are just kind of you trying to figure this real life thing out - it's OK but still ya know it's a period of discovery and let's face it, some screwing up.

But then the late 20s arrive - maybe you are married, having kids, have a job. You get life a bit more, but you're still in your 20s so it's OK if you F-Up.

But 30 - ahhh 30 - you're a for real adult now - you're on your own - any F-ups are yours and yours alone to deal with. You have a mortgage, job, family, it's a whole new ball game.

But you know what- I couldn't wait to get out of the 20s, I was ready for 30 - I fully embrace it and am happy it's here.

And I'm so glad I have Adam to go through with it!

Shhh.... It's a Surprise

At the start of December... I was up to something sneaky - very sneaky!

I spent weeks planning, stressing, shopping and prepping.

I spent the day of at work, decorating, planning, setting up.

And then Adam and I went to our friend's house for the night. But on the way there I had to stop at my office for an emergency for the group renting for the night.

I thought it would be a very good idea for Adam to join me inside incase it took a while or I needed his help with the projector.

But no... he thought it was best to just stay in the car and wait

But I'm a persistent bugger... So he joined me in the building.

And then scratched his head when all of his friends yelled surprise.

Adam enjoyed a night with his poker buddies and other guys. They played poker, roulette, blackjack and Wii for the night. It was great for me to meet the guys finally and then I got to enjoy a night out with the wives!

Happy 30th Adam.... I love you!!

Our Last Day... A Sad One...

Well, the weather was bad again so we unfortunately didn't get to visit the private island in the Bahamas. Which I guess for us was a life saver since we were both already toasty red! OK Lobster Red!!

We were bummed, because we had put off doing our Christmas picture to do at the Bahamas and now we were not going to get it done and trying to find fun tropical shots on the boat was just not happening when the only thing for miles is sky and water. We also had brought an underwater camera with us so we could do some snorkeling, but le sigh we didn't get to do it.

We spent most of the morning being lazy in our room watching movies (seriously the movies 24/7 is the BEST!!!) We headed out to the pool deck for lunch time when the crew was doing the BBQ that we didn't get to have on the island. We spent the rest of the day walking around the ship getting some pictures for our Christmas Card (bleh!). We took some time too to hit some golf balls at the driving cage and then we relaxed and enjoyed the cool 70 degree weather.

We popped in to the Spinnaker Lounge again in the afternoon as well to check out Sharkbait do an impromptu Q&A. The two guys met when they were clowns with Ringling Brothers and then started this act together and have been on the cruise ships for 6 years.

We really just spent the day relaxing and then headed to eat another sushi dinner again - so fun again to have all you can eat sushi and try new things! We went to the last show of the cruise that night which was comedian David Naster and Sharkbait. It was so funny and just great entertainment - standing room only in the theater. We ended the night back at the piano bar again for the last night to say goodbye to those we met (including another RI couple).

The next day we were leaving- it was so sad to be leaving - we really did have a nice time. We think the Bermuda cruise from Boston though may be more up to our liking next time- where you get 3 days in one port of call.

We never felt like we had enough time at each port of call, so again a different cruise may be a better option. But really we LOVED Norwegian. Between the flexibility with the dining, the dressing - it was SO very worth it for us. We also thought the ship was very nice and clean and the staff were great. We were quite impressed with the sanitation on the ship - hand sanitizer dispensers everywhere and they have someone squirt you down with hand sanitizer before you go to any restaurant too. The entertainment was incredible, the food was wonderful, we would certainly book a Norwegian cruise again!

Some pictures of our last day on the boat...

On The High Seas....

On Thursday of our cruise we were at sea all day. We slept in and then hit the sun deck to lounge for the day. Unfortunately, we both got fried- but Adam much more so than me. We finally had to spend the rest of the day in the shade resting and then in the room trying to cool down and hydrate from our burns.

One of the best parts of the cruise was our Capt. Lars... his nice Sweedish accent and humor was the best. He really just liked to hear himself speak over the PA system. While we were all outside in the sun, he announced that it was really hot and sunny out and that we should all be using protection - all you saw were a sea of heads look up towards the speakers. Capt. Lars then quickly said, Oh I mean sun protection - but you should use protection in all walks of life too!

God I miss Capt. Lars.

We had a nice evening on the boat too, despite the burns. We had a wonderful dinner at the 2nd main dining room - Indigo - a little less formal and more trendy than the main formal dinging room. We played some shuffle board and then took in Broadway Show Tune Sing Along in the Piano Bar with Jimmy and our new piano bar friends. We then had to devise a great plan to be in 2 places at once. I hit the chocolate buffet and filled a couple of plates for us while Adam made his way to the Spinnaker Lounge for the Liars Club Game Show and The Quest Game.

The Liars Club features comedians from the different acts on the ship and you had to guess who was telling the lie. The Quest was a game show hosted by our favorite act Sharkbait. It was an in room scavenger hunt that you teamed up to do - you had to do things like run up with false teeth, a bra on your head, a man in women's shoes, etc. It was a riot - we did play along with another couple but there were some other GUNG HO groups that there was no way we could ever beat them!

The next day we were going to be in the Bahamas at the beach all day at Norwegian's private Island - too bad we were already fried!!!

Oh Tortola, How we miss you!!!

Our early wake up was well worth it - Tortola, BVI was the BEST stop on the cruise and we wish we could have just moved our bags off the ship and stayed there for good - but we would have sent for Sneezy and Bashful though!

We started our day by going over to the botanical gardens in Tortola. We wanted to go there so we could see some of the local flora and fauna - and because we both love gardens. Even though it was so incredibly hot that day, we had the best time!

The gardens were so beautiful, green, lush, the aroma was wonderful, such colorful flowers, we spent a good couple of hours there just roaming and taking pictures. And again, more free roaming chickens! God I miss having chickens just roaming randomly every place we go!

From the gardens, we walked downtown to the local Caribee Spice Shop we wanted to visit. It smelled so wonderful in there and we picked up some nice local spices to take home with us and a beautiful wooden fish platter to hang in our kitchen.

After the shopping we still had some time to kill and wanted to see as much of the island as we could before we had to be back on the boat for 2 pm. We made our way to a local taxi stand and asked if someone would take us on a tour of the island for about an hour or so. We had a wonderful cab driver - Albert Norris - Like Fat Albert and Chuck Norris he joked.

Albert seriously made our time in Tortola so wonderful! He was funny, incredibly informative, and was so happy to take us to all of these wonderful places! We were the most impressed with Tortola. The island has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the Virgin Islands - aside from tourism the highest rates of employment are for the government and education. We loved the great winding roads with the views of the water. Albert told us the roads were initially designed for donkeys and carts, and never widened, so when you go around bends and turns you have to honk your horn to let other cars know you're coming.

Albert pointed out everything to us and made sure we saw the best and most beautiful places of the island in an hour and a half. He took us up to this overlook area where you could see the whole island and the surrounding islands as well.. There were the most beautiful views from this overlook and we're so thankful he took us here.

He showed us some of the most beautiful beaches as well and made sure to stop when he saw local vegetation that we don't have in the states to show us - including some unique fruits and almonds in their natural/raw state. WAY COOL.

We were so thankful we met up with Albert - his tour of the island was well worth the $40 we paid him. He made our time in Tortola so wonderful. And he got us back to the ship just in time for the heavens to open up and start pouring.

Back on the boat we relaxed and had some lunch and watched some movies before dinner for the night.

We saw the BEST show this night of the cruise as well - Sharkbait - a juggling act. They were hysterically funny and talented beyond belief. By far the best show on the cruise. After the show we enjoyed a Tepyanaki dinner and then a little bit of piano bar time before we took in the Burlesque show at the lounge.

This day was by far the best day and night of the cruise. It was the first day neither of us were sea sick and the first destination we really truly loved and would go back to again.

Pictures of Tortola for you to enjoy - notice the wonderful hills and houses on the hillside - oh gosh we want to move there! TONS of pictures! You can tell we liked it best!

Welcome to St. Thomas

On Tuesday of our cruise we were in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.

We wish we would have had more than 8 hours there, we felt that while we did a lot we missed a lot too.

We started the morning with a visit to Coral World, the aquarium in St. Thomas. We wanted to take in this aquarium because they have an exhibit that is an underwater tank where the actual fish from the ocean are the aquarium. Way cool.

At Coral World, Adam fed some sting rays, we watched a sea lion enrichment, tried to avoid stepping on iguanas everywhere we went, and just watched the waves crash on the rocks for a long time.

Next to Coral World is Coki Beach - so we changed to our swim garb and headed to the beach for some sun and surf. It is a small beach but a nice one - great white sand and clear blue waters. We both enjoyed floating around in the water and lounging under a nice palm tree for a couple of hours. Even though we live on the Atlantic here in Rhode Island, it was NOTHING like the Atlantic we got to swim in here. So warm, clean, nice and relaxing. Adam found some great corals for us as well.

After our time at the beach we headed to the downtown area to check out some shopping, but it was just jewelry shop after jewelry shop and got a little old. We did go to a wonderful linen shop and bought a beautiful lace runner for our dining room table and some other nice gifts. Other than that we were fairly disappointed with the downtown shopping area.

We wish we would have spent more time either relaxing at the beach or exploring the rest of the island instead of rushing to get back to the downtown area.

One of the things we LOVED about St. Thomas were the iguanas and lizards everywhere. There was a sign at the aquarium that said please don't feed the iguanas - and there was one sitting on a rock wall right next to it- so we assumed it was that ONE iguana, but we turned a corner and they were just crawling everywhere - even in the downtown area, lizards and iguanas would just walk past you - as well as the few random chickens.

We even made up a song about all of the chickens that were roaming everywhere on the trip - Chickens in the Park, Chickens in the Park - that's all we have...

Once back on the ship, we relaxed a bit and settled in for our evening of fun again. We once again were back at the piano bar and started to meet some of the other couples we saw there every night. We had a pretty low key evening with dinner and piano music and hit the sack - we were scheduled to arrive in Tortola the next morning at 7 am to start getting off the ship - quite early for vacation!

Overall we did like St. Thomas, it was green, lush, the waters at the beach were so blue and beautiful. And we had wonderful weather! Again, if you don't care about buying jewelry, knock off bags or liquor, skip the downtown shopping area and either spend more time at the beaches or exploring the island. We did think it was funny to be driving back to the downtown area and pass Kmart, McDonalds, Subway and other places we have around our area - but again, it is a US Territory.

Some picture of St. Thomas for you to enjoy!

Welcome to the Dominican

Our first day that we docked was in Samana, Dominican Republic. We've heard this wasn't going to be the best port of call - and we were prepared for that so we went ahead and booked an excursion for our day in Samana.

We got in to Samana on time, after Capt. Lars made up a ton of speed and distance after the rough weather and the delay waiting for the Coast Guard. There are no docks in Samana so we had to go over to the main land by tender.

We met our tour guide on the main land- the 4x4 Safari Excursion. The tour was supposed to take us to a farm to sample local produce, a hike to a waterfall and a beach. So we drove through the city, such poverty and very dirty - now we know why people gave this portion of the cruise such horrible reviews. We did enjoy the lush green scenery and vegetation though.

There were beautiful mountains, palm trees, fruit trees and vegetation everywhere. There were also just tons of livestock roaming everywhere - cows, chickens, donkeys, dogs, pigs, etc. No paved roads, no running water. They were building a water treatment plant so they'd have running water in the future. But the locals have to go to the center of town when the boats come in and try to get bottled water. I even had a lizard land on me in the 4x4 - it didn't bother me at all, but the woman behind me freaked out that there was a lizard on me. Pretty funny!

We finally made it to the road that we were supposed to take in to the rain forest to go to the waterfall, but because of the severe rains, the road was completely flooded and the river was over its banks. There were even 4x4s stuck in the river that had tourists in them! So we couldn't get to the waterfall, and then we couldn't get to the farm, so instead we turned around and headed back to a beach.

Hmmmm this isn't what we paid for at all. But the beach was nice and there was a resort there so we were able to have a nice lunch with local foods. But it was so packed because every tour group that couldn't do what they were supposed to do was at the resort. We finally got back in the 4x4 and headed to the downtown area which was just junk shop after junk shop. The straw market there too was just junkie little stuff and every booth had the same thing.

We were so disappointed we just headed back to the ship - we were tired of the kids chasing us down to buy shells and begging for money. "Dollar friend, dollar". There was even one kid that was so good he just followed us crying! HA!

Once back on the boat we headed to the pool for the afternoon and then rested up for the evening. The main dining room menus were duds that night so we went for sushi instead (all you can eat sushi for $40 bucks is SO worth it!!!) and then we took in the showgirl revue in the big theater and of course, our piano man Jimmy!

Overall Samana was interesting and we really did enjoy seeing the countryside. For Adam and I it was really the first time either of us had been to a third world country. It's not a great port of call - maybe in 10 years it will be built up and it will be, but for now, if you book a cruise that goes to Samana, don't go there! Find another cruise!

Some photos from Samana for you!

First Day at Sea

Sunday on the cruise was our first full day at sea. Because of how rough it was, I didn't sleep all night and I was not feeling well at all. The weather was horrible, wind, rain, storms, so the decks were closed so we were relegated to the inside of the ship all day.

We decided to kill some time in the Spinnaker Lounge on the boat but then shortly after saw Bingo was starting there. OOO Bingo - I love bingo - so we thought we'd play - however, it was upwards of 50 bucks just to play bingo. So instead, we just laughed at the herds of people dropping hundreds of dollars to play bingo and 'win big'.

Since the lounge had filled, we made our way to the bowling alley - yes our boat had a bowling alley. Just a word of advice, it's VERY hard to bowl when the boat is rocking every which way. Adam did awesome, scoring a 99 (low for him, but high on the rough seas!). We took in the Art Auction on board, and were disappointed when we saw that the piece we liked was $4300!!! But it was really fun to watch the auction and learn about some of the artists.

Sunday was so rough, even the crew members were having a hard time walking straight. We spent most of the afternoon and early evening in our room watching movies and napping. We finally made it out of our room for dinner, and we went to the main dining room again. The one thing we loved about the Norwegian line of boats is that you could eat in the main dining rooms or the many other on board restaurants. And you didn't ever have to eat with anyone else - even in the main dining rooms. So it was wonderful to be together and not sitting with strangers every night. We also chose Norwegian because it's a more casual line - never had to get dressed up for a meal more than a nice skirt or pair of slacks. No formal nights, no black ties. LOVE IT!

Sunday night we spent in the piano bar again - We really were digging the piano guy Jimmy - doesn't play with any music, just by ear and fake books... knows the most obscure songs and lyrics as well. Hell, any piano player that can play Bohemian Rhapsody on the piano is pretty insane!!

We're Crusin'

So in November, Adam and I finally took our first vacation of the year (I know it was November OK!). We took a week long cruise on the Norwegian Pearl to the Dominican Republic and the US and British Virgin Islands.

It was our first cruise, and we still haven't decided if we love it or not, but we had a really nice time just being away and reconnecting together with how busy we'd been the past year.

We left from Miami, but arrived down there a day early to enjoy the city and not deal with late flights or anything. Miami was certainly dirtier than we thought, and we didn't really have the time or energy to head over to South Beach, but we did go to Bayside Marketplace on Friday night to walk along the water and have dinner.

The next day we headed off to the Port of Miami to meet the boat, and had to basically sign our medical life away saying we haven't had swine flu, don't currently have swine flu, nor do we know anyone or been in contact with people with swine flu.

When we got on the boat, we were greeted with our free glass of champagne and then hit the deck to kill some time before our cabin was ready. It was SO incredibly windy just sitting in port, and once we started departing, it got so choppy. But it was fun to see the departure, people in cars taking pictures of our boat leaving, music, dancing, drinks.

Turns out, we were hitting the tail end of the hurricane that was in the Gulf of Mexico, but the system around the storm was just as bad and stretching over Florida to the Miami side. It was so rocky and windy that the water was just waving right out of the pools.

While walking around the ship later, we heard a call on the PA for the stretcher team to go to the pool deck. Later, Captain Lars came on to tell us that there was an injured passenger (now this is like 3-4 hours after we left port) and that we were still close enough for the coast guard to come and air lift them off the boat. So Capt. Lars just had us spinning circles in the Atlantic until the coast guard could get to the ship to air lift the injured passenger off the boat. The spinning, plus the rocking and waves made for one incredibly sea sick evening.

That first night on the boat we had a wonderful dinner in the main dining room with an awesome waitress who brought us double soufflé - so yummy! After dinner we spent the evening in the piano lounge - where we spent most of our nights actually - and we were both so nauseated that we could just sit still and sip ginger ale.

Here are some pictures from our departure from Miami.