Anchors Away: Part 2

Our third day was spent on the cruise line's private island. We did some snorkeling and just enjoyed hanging out on the beach. The weather was perfect and I wished we had an underwater camera to capture all the fish! It was a wonderfully relaxing day.

Hot cranky picture #2

Jesse and a midget pirate

 Unfortunately, we had no fireworks for the 4th of July. :-( Apparently it's against the law or not safe or something. Sunset pics:

Bird line-up

The next day was awesome. Do you know why? Because we went to ATLANTIS! Oh yizzow. Have you heard of this place? Check out the website: www.atlantis.com when you have time to waste planning your dream vacation. It is a resort, although, that word feels like an inadequate description. It includes a hotel, water park, aquarium, beach, dolphin encounter, casino, and some other stuff. We bought a day pass to the water park for our excursion. My favorite was the serpent slide and here is how the website describes it:


"On the five-story corkscrew Serpent Slide, guests travel on a tube at high speeds through the darkness of the Mayan Temple's core. The twisting and turning ride culminates with a leisurely pass through a clear acrylic tunnel submerged in a shark-filled lagoon."

Did you catch the end?? A shark-filled lagoon? Uh-mazing. For a relatively small water park, it had some really great rides/slides and beautiful oceanside views. Our pics don't do it justice:

Riding back to the ship

 Our last night on the ship, we went to a demonstration on towel folding before the final show. When you go on a cruise, they leave these sweet little towel critters in your room. Stephanie has promised to master the pig in honor of the razorbacks.

Wouldn't this be a cute razorback with a red towel?

Adam got up early to capture the Miami skyline before sunrise:

Alas, Jesse & Stephanie had to head back as soon as we disembarked. But they did it in style! They drove this super cute little Fiat back to Orlando! Total hipsters...

Anchors Away: Part 1

We started off cruise week with a late breakfast at the Original Pancake House. Yum! That was the first of many meals to come. We did a lot of eating on the cruise. Funny how much more food you eat when it is available all the time and "free." We were onboard by 1 o'clock-ish checking out the Miami coastline.

Stef is in awe of the ship

That's where the Heat plays...

Before we knew it, we were riding off into the sunset! Woohoo!

The first night didn't go so well for Stef. She was feeling a bit seasick. Jesse, Adam, and I went to check out the comedian after dinner. The next day, we were docked at Freeport on Grand Bahama Island. Since we didn't book an excursion here, we just took a taxi into the shopping area to look around.

This is my hot and cranky picture. Adam loves capturing these moments. We went back to the ship and hit the pool because it was so hot.

Later that night, we headed out for dinner and the entertainment which was a Gloria Estefan tribute show.

Carnival was following us everywhere. Ha. They were doc'd next to us at two of our three stops.

Pre-show silliness:

Post-show loveliness:

That's it for this post. More to come...

Birthday Bliss

Where to even start! It's been a bit of a whirlwind since my last update. Our dear friends, Jesse & Stephanie, came to visit us at the end of June before the four of us jumped on a boat and cruised the Bahamas!

Adam and I still had to work on Thursday, so Jesse & Stephanie were on their own, but we snuggled in  for homemade meatballs and So You Think You Can Dance that evening. It was so fun just to hang out with our friends.

Jesse and I happen to share the same birthday, so we made sure to celebrate in high fashion. Here are some pics from the airboat tour we took. We saw several gators up close and personal because this place baits wild gators with cheeze-its!

See the cheeze-its in this pic?

Everybody loves to hold the gator!

After the airboat tour, we did some shopping at the outlets and then headed home for some pool time. We finished up the birthday evening with ice-cream and star gazing on the beach. So relaxing! 

The next day we brunched on Lincoln Road and took a quick look at Ocean Drive before heading over to the state park at Key Biscayne. We rented a quad-bike for some exploring and how cute is it with that red and white striped awning?! Very fun...

We also tried out the beach here, but it was too seaweedy for me. Ewww! We'll probably pick a different beach for swimming next time around.

Sunday we went to church and 6-7 people answered an altar call! Woot! It was super exciting! Altar calls seem old fashioned to me, but this church does one every week, I think. Two of the three times we've visited, people have stepped forward expressing a desire to know Christ during the altar call. That seems like a sign of a healthy church and it has challenged me to reconsider my preconceived thoughts about altar calls (old-fashioned, empty prayers, just for show, etc.). We spent the rest of the day doing laundry and packing for the cruise.... which is what will be featured on my next post! Stay tuned for ATLANTIS! Oh yizzow!