Monday, October 19, 2009

BAHAMAS CRUISE!!!!

We had a blast on our cruise. It was only 4 nights and we were supposed to have 3 stops but they canceled the last one because of "the weather" It was just sprinkling, nothing big but they still canceled the stop. John wanted to talk to the captain directly and tell him what he thought :) We were still able to see Freeport and Nassau and they were both beautiful places. Another thing we loved about the cruise was that we only felt the cruise ship move once and it was while we were turning. The water was so calm that it didn't even feel like we were on a boat. Here are some pics of our trip...

ON THE SHIP
The view of Miami from the ship at sunset.



Madi in her high chair at breakfast.

Madi and our cool little bunny made out of towels.


FREEPORT, BAHAMAS
In Freeport we relaxed on the beach! We went to Port Lucaya. It was nice to relax and just be on vacation. We tried to snorkel there but there was nothing to see. Our tour guide at the next stop told us that Freeport was one of the worst spots for shark attacks. They feed sharks just miles from Port Lucaya and it attracts them. He says the people that get attacked get paid not to report their attack to the media so that tourist will continue to vacate there. I am so glad we didn't know this until after! And so glad that we are safe. The guy said he had only seen two sharks in Nassau the whole time he lived there. He had lived there seven years and is always on the water. Freeport- lots of sharks, Nassua- not so many sharks. Good to know.

This picture doesn't do it justice but the water is so clear and turquise. It is such a pretty color.

Lunch break!





This goon said we could take a free picture with him and then after said he usually takes a $5 tip but that he would take what we had. We should've known better. And he insisted John hold his hand ha ha. As you can tell in the picture John was not very happy about it :)


NASSAU, BAHAMAS
Nassau was definitely our favorite stop. It was better than Freeport. We did so many fun things and saw a lot of the island because we had a local guy take us around on his boat. He had never taken tourists around the island before but he said he would do it for us. He knew a lot about the island and we learned a lot.

This was actually taken at the end of the day. She was exhausted!

This is the Atlantis Resort. We went and walked around a little bit and they have a really neat aquarium in the hotel. If you look close in this picture you can see the Michael Jackson suite. Right above the trees you can see an arch that connects the two buildings. That is it. They said it is $16,000 a night and it is booked out for years. That is just nuts.

John pointing out the huge Stingray to Madi.







This is Gilligan's Island behind us! We snorkeled around the island next to this one. It was too shallow and there were too many rocks for him to get his boat any closer but we thought it was pretty cool that we saw the actual Gilligan's Island!


This is our tour guide. He was really great. We paid him for the whole day . He said he would take us to the island and wait for us until we were ready to go back. John never worries but I am a worrier so I thought he was going to take us to the island and leave us. I didn't jump into the water until he did. He was cool though. He jumped in first and started snorkeling. He snorkeled with us and told us all the names of the fish. He even caught a fish to take home for dinner for his family. Madi was pretty intrigued but we kept our distance because if you ask me that fish looks freaky!


Madi loved the boat. She wanted to get as close to the edge as possible so she could look into the water.


This is Rose Island where we went snorkling. It was amazing. The water was so clear you could see the bottom of the ocean and a lot of the fish from the boat. We saw all kinds of colorful fish. Our tour guide told us to stay away from the fish that look like lions. He said they are so poisonous that if they get you then you only have 5 minutes to get to the hospital, and we were more than 5 min away from anything. Luckily we didn't see any.




Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Charlotte, NC

We went on a little trip again once John's summer was over and our first stop was Charlotte NC! John's brother Andy and his family live there. We were able to stay for a week and a half. I didn't get hardly any pictures so I am kind of bummed but we had so much fun there! Here is some of the stuff we did:
*Shopped! They have these awesome outlets right by their house and The Childrens Place was having there huge sale where all the summer clothes were a dollar a piece. I went three different days and went hog wild. I bought clothes for a boy or a girl so whatever this baby is, we will be set!
*Went to the park. Madi had never been to the park (I know that's sad). She loved the swing!
Madi and her cousin Jacob




*We went to the US National Whitewater Center for a day. John's Mom watched Madi for half of the day and then she met up with us while Katy watched her the rest of the day. It was so nice to be with John the whole day and enjoy all the activities. This is the kind of stuff we love to do together. We went whitewater rafting. It is a man made river that has all the rapids, rocks, and eddy's a real river would have. This is actually where the olympic whitewater rafting team practices in the winter. Next we went on a zipline that was 1,123 feet long and about 50 feet in the air. We glided over the rapids and it was a huge rush. It was so much fun! Once John's mom got there we rafted the river again and it was way funner the second time because we went down the experienced river rather than the family river. The last thing we did was flat water kayaking. It was mostly relaxing but it did give my arms a good workout. There was so much to do that we couldn't fit it all into one day but some of the activiies we missed were mouuntain biking, rock climbing, and the whitewater kayaking. I definitely recommend you go there if you are ever in Charlotte. It was a blast! We were so busy and having so much fun that we didn't take any pictures of all the fun stuff. Here are some pictures afterwards.



If you want to see the professional pictures of us rafting you can go to http://www.photos.usnwc.org/Water-Sports-Photos/9-25-09/230-330/9751950_ULVC4#660546616_6ZnSs and http://www.photos.usnwc.org/Water-Sports-Photos/9-25-09/230-330/9751950_ULVC4#660585682_GPeUi
*Went golfing. Usually my max is nine holes but they had a really good deal so I went 18. I used womens clubs this time and I did so much better. It was a pretty hard course but so much fun. The boys went a second time on Saturday and got poured on :( Of course they played through it.
* Went to see John's Dad and Eleanor in Kernersville for a couple of days!