Last Chance Vacations

As part of our Christmas this year Nate and I decided to go on one last adventure before the baby comes. My Cousin Heather invited Nate and I to go on a Caribbean cruise with them. Heather and I discussed details and got everything all booked. Well, about a week before the trip we realized that I had booked my cruise a week before my cousins so we each took the same trip just a week apart. I blame it on pregnancy. I think my brain has stopped working so more blood can be sent to the baby. We had a great time on the cruise. I will try not to bore you all with an over abundance of pictures but I would like to share some of the highlights.

We thought this was pretty fun. Nathan's middle name is Arthur and these two stores just happened to be next to each other in the Atlanta Airport.

Departing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida - December 6th

We sailed on the Carnival Splendor of the Sea. The ship was really nice and really big. The video below is of the lobby area.
Are first day, Dec. 7th, was spent at sea.

San Juan, Puerto Rico - Dec. 8th

At one time San Juan had I think 13 entrances into the city, but this is the only original entrance that still remains.

Nate and I in front of Fort San Felipe del Morro. El Morro was constructed in the 16th century to protect the town from attach by sea. I think El Morro was probably my favorite attraction on this cruise. I'm glad we made it. Our boat docked in Puerto Rico at 5:00 PM and the fort closed at 6:00 PM.

Luckily Castillo de San Cristóbal stayed open until 7:00 PM so we were able to run over to it before it closed. Castillo de San Cristóbal was built by the Spanish in 1783 to protect against land attacks.

Unfortunately, We didn't have time to see the whole fort but what we did see was really cool. Both forts were huge. I would love to go back and spend more time in Puerto Rico.

We had a taxi take us to a restaurant called the Latin Star in Condado. A lady that Nate works with told us we had to go there and try Mangu which is fried mushed plantains. I had Chicken Mangu and Nate had Turkey. It was actually pretty good.

Our boat didn't leave San Juan until Midnight so we spent the rest of the night exploring the city of San Juan. It was fun to see all of the Christmas decorations. This is the Mayors house. We were tyring to get a picture to use as a Christmas Card for next year.

Capilla del Cristo was constructed in the 16th century because a guy was racing his horse down this street and he ran off the cliff. There are two different stories behind why the chapel was constructed. One says the guy lived and the chapel was built to commemorate the miracle. The other story says the guy died and the chapel was built to block off the cliff so no one else would fall

The Catedral de San Juan was built in 1521 and is the second oldest cathedral in the western hemisphere. This was the first thing that people would see when they entered the city through the red door. Supposedly, the remains of Ponce de Leon are inside the cathedral.

St. Thomas, Virgin Islands - Dec. 9th

There was an excursion offered by the ship that would take us to this beach for some snorkeling. I think the ship exertion cost somewhere around $30.00 or something like that. Nate and I, thanks to the help of some locals, found a bus that took us to the same beach for $2.00. Look at all of those other suckers who paid a bunch of money. Ha Ha....

The snorkeling was pretty good. We saw all kinds of colorful fish and cool sea creatures. Well worth the $2.00. It did rain on and off, but it wasn't too cold.

St. Thomas was really pretty around the resort area, but the city and domestic areas looked about like the Dominican Republic. You would think the United States would take better care of it's property.

The pretty view from our ship. We are just waiting to leave St. Thomas and head for the Dominican Republic.

La Romana, Dominican Republic - Dec. 10th

Here we are in the D.R. Nate and I decided to go on our one adventure again instead of paying the outlandish Cruise excursion prices. It would have cost us $65.00 a person to do what we did for $20.00 a person and that included being ripped off by a very cleaver money exchanger.

AS you can see by this picture, the Dominican's do not care too much about historical land marks. Pretty sad, but it is cool that you can get into all these old places for free. That never happens in America.



We rode a bus for 2 hours from La Roman to Santo Domingo. We only had 4 hours to see all of the history that the first Colony in the New World had to offer.

The guy standing by Nate in this picture decided that he was going to be our tour guide even though we told him we didn't want one. We eventually paid him to leave us alone.

The building at the end of this street was the first University built in the new world.

(You gotta love the power lines in third world countries.)

This is the was the first hospital built in the New World.

The building directly to the right side of Nate was the home of Diego de Colon, Christopher Columbus's son. He came to Santo Domingo when the Queen forbid Christopher Columbus to leave Spain.

(Once again, I loved all of the Christmas decorations.)

This is called Panteon de La Patria. It was the first Jesuitas Church built in the New World.

This is Fortaleza de Santo Domingo. We didn't have much time to fully explore the fort, but what we saw was interesting.

We visited Santo Domingo on the day of Dia de la Patria which is similar to our Veteran's Day so there were tons of solders all over the city and they had these cool guns on display at the fort.






This is Catedral de Santo Domingo, the first Cathedral built in the New World.

There was an incredible sunset as we were sailing out of the Dominican Republic. This picture is pretty, but the real thing was like a hundred times more beautiful.

Second Day at Sea - Dec. 11th

I had a cute picture of Nate and I on our way to dinner, but I keep deleting pictures and then it my whole set up gets messed up when I add a new picture so I am not going to try to add it gain. I will put it in a new post.

The Bahamas - December 12th

When we got to the Bahamas we had two options. One was to take a taxi to this resort called Atlantis, (see the first picture) but we were sick of being raped by taxis so we decided to spend the day walking around town. I think we walked about 8 miles by the end of the day.

Of course we had to walk through the cemetery.

And take a picture of us kissing on Lovers Lane. How cute!

The Fort in the back ground is called Fort Montegue. Unfortunately it was locked so we couldn't go inside.

But, that didn't stop Nate from taking a peak.

We also went to fort Fincastle and looke around. There was a little farmers market in front of the fort and we wanted to buy some suvaniers, but street sellers in Bahams are not into bartering like the venders in Central America. We offered a guy $5.00 for this small little statue and he just scoffed at us like our money was no good. Of course it is the Bahams and I am sure that people will pay outlandish prices for things.

Nate explains the secret of aiming canons in the video below.

We were definately on the wrong side of the Island for Snorkling. We tired to snorkel at this beach and all we saw was seaweed and murky water. Oh, but Nate did find a plastic spoon.

The Bahams were definately my least favorite stop, but we still had a good time exploring the town and we saw some pretty cool things. Plus, we got some much needed exercise.

The moon looked so amazing. It was huge and bright. The camera did not do it justice at all. We later found out that the moon was as close to the earth as it gets during it's whole oribit. Sadly The Bahamas marked the end of our cruise. When we woke up in the morning we had to put on our pants and hoodies and that was in Florida.

Look at what greated us when we got of the plane in Salt Lake City.

But, It always feels good to come home, no matter the weather or how great the vacation.