Saturday, September 11, 2010

Cruise part 2

Grand Turk!

What an amazing place! That was the most beautiful water and beach I have ever seen! The beach was covered in huge conch shells. We took a tour over to a deserted island for snorkeling and hiking; and also passed by a bird sanctuary on the way.
The tour boat with our ship in the background.





Snorkeling in the crystal clear water

After snorkeling we all started the tour hike. Peter and my dad hiked to the ruins of a small slave built house
After a few minutes my mom and I turned around because we felt a deserted beach was way better than a crowded hike. We were right!


The amenities!

We had fun at movies under the stars--watching a movie in the open air on the top deck, on a huge movie screen.
The gym. Yes we still worked out. I had my first ever experience with sweat dripping down my entire body. I do normally sweat, but never huge drops. That's what 100% humidity will do for you.
All the fun ship shows. This was the ice-carving demonstration.
The best part was relaxing. Peter and I found the quite deck and fell asleep watching the ocean pass by. It was so peaceful!
The Service!

Our amazing steward Nilo who treated us like family and royalty all at the same time. He was the bed making ninja. He somehow snuck into our room at all hours of the day, tidied things up, made the bed after every nap, and had an endless supply of fresh fruit and chocolates waiting for us.
When my mom had her heart trouble he came in the room and offered a prayer for her. Such a sweet man!

The dancing!

Peter and I had a great time dancing. This was the cute couple who stole the show at every dance party.
Mom and Dad cutting a rug!
Peter and I. During the Latin songs the instructors told us we had FIRE when we danced! The next day a man told us, "It's so nice to see you just out there having fun and not taking yourselves too seriously." In other words, "you guys are really terrible dancers, but I'm glad your still smiling." However we looked, we loved every minute of it! At least I did, and Peter was kind enough to tolerate it :)

The Food!Because our first night was spent adrift in the Bermuda Triangle without engine power, our sweet waiters tried everything they could to make us happy. Only cold food was available. In stead of fillet minion, they wipped us up some nice ham and cheese sandwiches. They were great.

Peter choose to focus his stomach on shrimp and ended up eating many, many plates of the appetizer.
We celebrated our 6th anniversary and were given the most amazing cake. I would pay good money to eat that again!
The fettuccine Alfredo was amazing! I loved the Parmesan serving bowl! I really did gain a pound a day!

Peter had a firm goal in mind to compete with my brother in law Kolby for the most lobster tails consumed in 1 sitting. He ended up with a tie--4 total. By #4 he told the water to skip the sides and the garnishes and just bring only the meat.
Those desserts were amazing!
One of my favorite things was the amazingly fresh sorbet. This was both our favorite--blueberry! It really tasted like a fresh, frosty blueberry.
The last night there was a baked Alaska parade after dinner. I am a HUGE sucker for meringue (or however you spell that amazing caramelized, marshmallow like topping)! It was a great way to end an amazing week of food. Oh how I miss it!
Here was our amazing dinner party. left to right: Our hilarious Scottish tablemates Janie and Leslie, Our incredible servers who feed us amazing food to overflowing, my Mom & Dad, Peter and me.

Ball Squirter

The boys loved this ball squirter. It was fun to see them jump up and down, anxiously anticipating the balls popping out.


The boys love playing in the sand box. Especially when it is muddy!
About the only thing that consistently grew in the garden were our huge asparagus beans. They were about 2 feet long.

This is what our huge, green caterpillar turned into. We thought it might be dead so Peter sliced oped the cocoon but it was alive. It has been 3 and a half months since it entered the cocoon and it is still wiggling around in there. we check on it every few days thinking it must have died, but its wiggles as soon as you move it. Hopefully we'll get to see it come out. It should be a cool looking moth.This guy was hiding in my basil plant. It was fun to see him but I was a little worried about him contaminating our food.Kimball loves to "smash" the bread dough
This is how Kimball ties shoes. If you leave your shoe laces unattended, watch out for Kimball!
I never know what Joey will do doing nap time. This day he got every stuffed animal and toy and made a tent for each one with a book. It was a little tent city.