{Carribbean Cruise}

Although we'd never been on a cruise before, several friends and family have been, so we already knew we wanted to cruise with Royal Carribbean.  We chose the 7-day Eastern Carribbean cruise on the Allure of the Sea, and it was wonderful (especially for the photographer in me)!!  Beautiful scenery, all the food we could eat (Luke had a particular love affair with Sorrento's Pizza), endless days of relaxing in the sun...we could have stayed there for another month, but we had to return to the real world (sigh).

Part of a series of sculptures depicting how a carousel horse was carved.

...so, of course we HAD to ride the carousel onboard!!

Luke and Phillip watching us leave Ft. Lauderdale behind.

Day 1:  Sunrise in Nassau, Bahamas

So, I'm taking pictures from our balcony and we have a sudden rain shower...which produced this beautiful rainbow after passed.  I seriously could not believe my luck!!

Day 1:  Heading back to the ship after our "Pirates & Forts" tour in Nassau.  The Allure dwarfed the other two cruise ships docked alongside it.

Day 1:  This is nearly the same picture as the sunrise above, only taken after our tour of Nassau.

Day 2:  Of course, I had to put a picture of Karena and Luke on this blog.  Both dressed to the nines for the formal dinner (we had the most awesome waiter at our dinners.  Friendly, knowledgeable, and efficient...and he spoke fluent sarcasm!!)

Day 4: After a full day and night of sailing the open seas, we pulled into St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.

So apparently, St. Thomas has a large resident population of iguanas...who are totally oblivious to the tourists gawking at them!

Day 4:  Once docked at St. Thomas, we took a ferry across to St. John's Island (I had heard it was incredibly beautiful).  The captain of the ferry gave us some interesting history of the islands between St. Thomas and St. John...and uttered a phrase which made us realize he was also from the southern US.  He said, "We're fixin' to see..."  Dead giveaway.

Day 4:  Once on the island of St. John, we had a quick lunch and then Karena and Luke stayed on the beach to swim.  Phillip and I took a tour of the island, and were not disappointed by its charm and beauty.

There are wild asses (I'm not joking, that's what they're called!) around the island, as much of the island of St. John is a natural park.  We met three of them right next to the incredibly narrow, winding roads...brave souls, they are!

One of the many bays around St. John's Island.

Day 4:  We stopped at one point at an abandoned Sugar Cane Mill, and took a little tour of the remains.  I couldn't get over how blue-green the water was!!

Day 4:  The sugar cane mill, abandoned in the 1700's...I was just amazed that people in that day and time could look at these islands and see the agricultural potential!  

Day 4:  The infamous Trunk Bay on St. John's Island.  I seriously don't think you could take a bad picture here if you tried!

Day 4:  Sunset on St. Thomas as we pulled away from the dock.

Day 5:  We left St. Thomas that night, and docked at St. Maarten the next morning.  We decided to take a catamaran tour and enjoy some snorkeling.

Day 5:  The beach on St. Maarten.  To the right is part of the coral reef we snorkeled around.  After a few minutes of snorkeling, Luke exclaimed that he had found Dori (from Finding Nemo).  These are the memories you cherish as a parent...

Day 5:  These fine folks are the crew of our catamaran, The Mirabella.  We pulled up next to another catamaran, and our crew raised their flag (which says "Surrender Your Booty").  They then launched a water attack on the crew of the other catamaran.  We enjoyed the sandwiches, refreshments, and entertainment from this fun-loving bunch!!